STEWART PENNEY /EDINBURGH
BAE Systems Avionics believes it is possible to improve software development times for complex applications such as signal processing by four to five times using a new tool, Gedae.
Gedae, produced by the company with the same name, allows automatic software development from a systems engineer's block diagrams, which define a system's architecture, says BAE Avionics director of technology Professor John Roulston.
This is important, he says, as software allows development of complex systems without an exponential growth in hardware. However, the algorithms used to define and control the system are the valuable part of the process, while software has limited value of its own and code writing introduces errors. Software also has to be rewritten when rehosted on a new processor, which is a non-trivial activity. The solution is to go from algorithm development to code in one step in a way that eliminates errors, says Roulston.
In 2001, BAE and partner EADS selected Gedae as a tool to aid development of the Captor radar for the Tranche 2 Eurofighter Typhoon multirole fighter. The system is being used as part of the development of a new processor for the radar, Roulston says. He adds that the system will speed development by four or five times in complex systems such as signals processing with less of an impact for simpler systems.
As well as platform and systems houses, Gedae has also been accepted by manufacturers of digital signals processors, says Roulston. Gedae written code is relocatable to any processor board using a board support package, which will be written by the vendor to create a standard interface, he adds.
Gedae developed software is already running on Sparc, PowerPC and other common processors and is being adapted to develop code for field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), he adds. FPGAs are increasingly replacing application specific integrated circuits, traditionally developed to provide key capabilities within avionics designs.
Source: Flight International
