Thales Aerospace Division selects GNAT Pro for Airbus A350 XWB (Xtra Wide-Body)

Summary:
Safety-critical systems to be implemented in Ada 2005

Full Text:
SAN DIEGO, NEW YORK and PARIS, June 1, 2009 - Avionics USA - AdaCore, a leading supplier of Ada development tools and support services, today announced that international electronics and systems group Thales has chosen the GNAT Pro technology, including several safety-qualified tools, to develop critical systems for the new Airbus A350 XWB (Xtra Wide-Body) family.

Thales will use the GNAT Pro High-Integrity Edition for DO-178B and the Ada 2005 language to build the Air Data Inertial Reference Unit (ADIRU) for the A350 XWB (Xtra Wide-Body). The ADIRU provides precise in-flight positioning information, and the new system will therefore need to be certified to the highest safety levels. It will meet Level A of the DO-178B standard and use ARINC 653 multi-partition operating system MACS2.

The project promises to advance the state of the art in safety-critical development through a number of innovations including the application of Agile Programming techniques and the safe use of Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) features. Thales will be using the Ada 2005 version of the Ada language, which has introduced additional support for real-time and safety-critical systems and for safe/reliable OOP.

“When it comes to safety-critical systems, the Ada language has an impressive pedigree and track record,” said Francois Brun, Software Design Authority at Thales Aerospace Division - Navigation Unit. “The combination of GNAT Pro and Ada 2005 provides the technology we need to develop the ADIRU software for the new Airbus A350 XWB (Xtra Wide-Body).”

AdaCore is also providing a Qualified Code Standard Checker and a Coverage tool for this program. These tools will be key to the development process of the ADIRU and the generation of safety evidence. AdaCore´s Coverage solution adopts an innovative approach by providing MC/DC coverage information on uninstrumented source code, through the use of a PowerPC simulator. Tool qualification material gives credit to the output of the tools, which speeds up the certification process.

“Thales is leading the way when it comes to safety-critical and avionics system development,” said Michaël Friess, Technical Sales Manager of AdaCore. “It is a pleasure to partner with such a technically advanced team. Our long collaboration with Thales and our regular exchanges with their technical staff have led to strategic advances in AdaCore´s offering. ADIRU is another example of a project that helps our technology progress, and that shows customers that they can count on AdaCore as a reliable partner in their development process.”

The A350 XWB (Xtra Wide-Body) Family is Airbus' response to widespread market demand for a series of highly efficient, medium-capacity, long-range, wide-body aircraft. With a range of up to 8,300 nm / 15,400 km, it is available in three basic passenger versions: the A350-800, the A350-900 and the A350-1000.

About AdaCore
Founded in 1994, AdaCore is the leading provider of commercial software solutions for Ada, a state-of-the-art programming language designed for large, long-lived applications where safety, security, and reliability are critical. AdaCore's flagship product is the GNAT Pro development environment, which comes with expert on-line support and is available on more platforms than any other Ada technology. AdaCore has an extensive world-wide customer base; see http://www.adacore.com/home/company/customers/ for further information.

Ada and GNAT Pro see a growing usage in high-integrity and safety-certified applications, including commercial aircraft avionics, military systems, air traffic management/control, railroad systems and medical devices, and in security-sensitive domains such as financial services.

AdaCore has North American headquarters in New York and European headquarters in Paris. www.adacore.com

Contact:
Jamie Ayre
AdaCore
press@adacore.com

Jessie Glockner
Rainier Communications (for AdaCore)
Tel: 508-475-0025 x140
adacore@rainierco.com