More information can be found at:

http://open.nasa.gov/blog/2012/01/04/the-plan-for-code/

I particularly like the call for participation – “Will your code someday escape our solar system or land on an alien planet? We’re working to make it happen, and with your help, it will.”

Certification standards such as DO-178B for avionics require evidence that the system source code is completely exercised by tests derived from requirements. Traditional tools obtain the coverage data for a test run through code instrumentation, but this complicates analysis since the code being exercised is not the code that will finally execute. A solution to this problem is provided by a combination of two new tools, one for target emulation and one for coverage analysis. GNATemulator translates target object code into native host instructions, with the resulting code running on the host. This approach is efficient (target code is not being interpreted dynamically) and convenient (a significant amount of development can be conducted without an actual target board). Running on an instrumented version of GNATemulator, the GNATcoverage tool non-intrusively provides coverage data at both the source and object levels. At the object code level the tool performs instruction and branch coverage. At the source code level it provides statement coverage, decision coverage, and Modified Condition/Decision Coverage (MC/DC), performing the necessary analysis when MC/DC cannot be deduced from object branch coverage, and fully supports all levels of DO-178B safety certification.

http://embedded-computing.com/non-intrusive-code-coverage-safety-critical-software

Abtract

“To achieve certification, safety-critical systems must demonstrate compliance with domain-specific standards such as DO-178 for commercial avionics. Developing a certified system consists of various interrelated activities that produce outputs (collections of artifacts) as evidence of successful completion. For example, one of the DO-178 verification activities is a traceability analysis; its output is a report showing that each software requirement is implemented in the source code. Conducting the certification-required activities and producing the artifacts demand a major effort, much more than for conventional Quality Assurance on non safety-critical systems.”

Read the full article.]]> http://www.open-do.org/2011/09/21/ee-times-design-article-the-big-thaw/feed/ 0 http://www.open-do.org/2011/09/15/open-world-forum/ http://www.open-do.org/2011/09/15/open-world-forum/#comments Thu, 15 Sep 2011 10:42:44 +0000 Jamie Ayre http://www.open-do.org/?p=1840 industrial day of the Open World Forum. Taking place on Sep 22 in Paris, there are a number of talks looking at the use of Open Source in industrial contexts and several projects (including Open-DO) will be presented. ]]> http://www.open-do.org/2011/09/15/open-world-forum/feed/ 0 http://www.open-do.org/2011/08/01/riposte-project-joins-open-do/ http://www.open-do.org/2011/08/01/riposte-project-joins-open-do/#comments Mon, 01 Aug 2011 07:02:25 +0000 Jamie Ayre http://www.open-do.org/?p=1802 Riposte is a tool to support developers in verifying SPARK programs. The SPARK Examiner generates verification conditions (VCs) that show that the SPARK program is type safe, free from run-time exceptions and meets the specification given in post conditions and checks. Existing tools allow true VCs to be proven automatically. Riposte augments these capabilities by generating counter examples for false VCs. These counter examples give variable assignments that cause violations in type safety, trigger exceptions or inputs that do not meet the required post conditions. The programmer can then use these to locate and fix bugs or refine the program’s specification.

The current release of Riposte is at an alpha stage and is intended to be a technology demonstration. Suggestions and feature requests are most welcome. To download the tool, please visit the Riposte project page on the Open-DO Forge.