AdaCore

Learn How to Gain Increased Assurance for Safety-Critical Software

Technology Spotlights
2 mins read

In a recently published report, AdaCore explains how developers can leverage the company's qualified tools and the Ada language to reduce software life cycle and safety certification costs, in particular to meet the objectives in the EN 50128 railway software standard. Download this report for free.

Free Booklet Shows How AdaCore’s Technologies Can Help Railway Software Developers Meet EN 50128 Objectives

New 70-page report explains how to reduce safety certification effort through Ada language and qualified AdaCore tools

AdaCore have announced the publication of AdaCore Technologies for CENELEC EN 50128:2011. Authored by AdaCore expert Quentin Ochem and CERTIFER safety assessor Jean-Louis Boulanger, this booklet summarizes the EN 50128 railway software standard and explains how the Ada programming language and AdaCore’s products can be used to meet its requirements throughout the software life cycle.

The new booklet presents the following technologies in the context of EN 50128:

  • The Ada 2012 language, including its contract-based programming features
  • The SPARK 2014 language (a formally verifiable subset of Ada 2012) and its supporting tools, which allow mathematical demonstration of program properties such as absence of run-time errors
  • The GNAT Ada compiler, including run-time libraries that have been certified at the SIL 3 and SIL 4 levels
  • Static analysis tools
    • CodePeer, an advanced static analysis tool for code review and verification
    • GNATmetric, a metric computation tool
    • GNATcheck, a coding standard checker
    • GNATdashboard, a platform for integrating and managing information from various analysis tools
  • Dynamic analysis tools
    • GNATtest, a unit testing framework generator
    • GNATemulator, a host-resident target processor emulator
    • GNATcoverage, a structural code coverage analyzer
  • The QGen model-based development and verification tool, which translates from Simulink® and Stateflow® models into SPARK or MISRA-C

These tools fit smoothly into the traditional software lifecycle from requirements definition through deployment and maintenance.

The booklet has the following contents:

  • A summary of the CENELEC EN 50128 standard
  • An overview of the relevant AdaCore tools and technologies
  • An explanation of AdaCore’s contributions towards the Software Quality Assurance Plan
  • A technology usage guide keyed to various requirements in EN 50128, such as Analyzable Programs and Boundary Value Analysis, showing how these requirements are met by AdaCore tools and technologies
  • A technology annex, summarizing the qualification status of the various tools and showing how they relate to specific Annex D sections

“Certification requirements are getting more and more complex,” said Quentin Ochem, Lead of Business Development and Technical Account Management at AdaCore. “In order to stay competitive, it is crucial yet difficult for railway system developers to fully understand how and where software tools can help. AdaCore’s new booklet answers this need and provides a clear mapping between technology capabilities and railway safety requirements.”

AdaCore products have been used in a variety of safety-critical railway systems and, as explained in the booklet, various tools have been qualified as T2 or T3 tools, and several run-time libraries have been certified at SIL-3 / SIL-4 levels, under EN 50128.

Availability

The AdaCore Technologies for CENELEC EN 50128:2011 booklet is available now, at no cost. To obtain a copy please contact info@adacore.com; it is also available for download from http://adacore.com/en-50128.

About AdaCore

Founded in 1994, AdaCore supplies software development and verification tools for mission-critical, safety-critical, and security-critical systems. Four flagship products highlight the company’s offerings:

  • The GNAT Pro development environment for Ada, a complete toolset for designing, implementing, and managing applications that demand high reliability and maintainability,
  • The CodePeer advanced static analysis tool, an automatic Ada code reviewer and validator that can detect and eliminate errors both during development and retrospectively on existing software,
  • The SPARK Pro verification environment, a toolset based on formal methods and oriented towards high-assurance systems, and
  • The QGen model-based development tool, a qualifiable and customizable code generator and verifier for Simulink® and Stateflow® models, intended for safety-critical control systems.

Over the years customers have used AdaCore products to field and maintain a wide range of critical applications in domains such as railway systems, space systems, commercial avionics, military systems, air traffic management/control, medical devices, and financial services.AdaCore has an extensive and growing world-wide customer base; see www.adacore.com/customers/ for further information.

AdaCore products are open source and come with expert on-line support provided by the developers themselves. The company has North American headquarters in New York and European headquarters in Paris. www.adacore.com

http://adacore.com/en-50128/