Military Embedded Systems Spring 2005 Volume 1 Number 1

Software
MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS Resource Guide
environment. That means access to more
technologies for these developers without
having to learn a new development environment,
as well as the ability to develop,
debug, and deploy devices employing
heterogeneous operating systems.
MIL EMBEDDED: How is the topic
of “safety-critical software” affecting
designers’ COTS choices?
FANELLI: Development of safety-critical
software is undergoing a shift as well.
Before, we had federated systems deployed
on a single hardware element, using a
COTS or home-grown OS. Today, we
see consolidation of applications onto an
ARINC- 653 platform using a COTS OS.
An example is the Boeing 787 program
where multiple vendors will build applications
on Wind River’s ARINC-653
platform that meets DO-178B Level A
certification. Now safety critical developers
can also achieve the goals of portability,
reusability, and modularity for their
applications.
MIL EMBEDDED: Wind River recently
endorsed the Eclipse development environment
and community. What does
this mean to the military user?
FANELLI: Obviously, we believe Eclipse
is strategic, otherwise we wouldn’t be
investing in it. Thus far, Eclipse has
gained remarkable traction in the enterprise
market, so now is the time to focus
on repeating this success in the broader
aerospace and defense industry. Wind
River Workbench, with third party plugins,
is being applied across many different
programs and RTOSs (from VxWorks to
Linux to third-party OSs) for both enterprise
and embedded development. Primes
will be able to standardize on tools/middleware
and increase their efficiencies,
while federated programs and software
solutions will fade.
all available technology (hardware bringup,
build, configuration and verification
tools, software interoperability and reusability,
post deployment support) across
the whole development life cycle is provided
on a common, open foundation.
This is the military’s vision and it marries
well with Wind River’s vision of how the
world is moving away from embedded
systems design to a new frontier.
MIL EMBEDDED: As systems shrink
to boards, and boards to chips, how
can this trend continue, and how will
it manifest itself in future defense
systems? Secondly, what effect does
this have on the systems’ software?
FANELLI: Certainly we will see more
handheld devices as well as a paradigm
shift in CONOPS (Concept of Operations)
as processing starts occurring in real time
in areas that were previously post analyzed.
For example, airborne reconnaissance
image exploitation will move from
ground-based systems to the airborne
vehicles and be processed in real time. A
soldier on the ground can have a vehicle
scan a road over a hill and alert them of
potential improvised explosive devices that
were placed there in the last few hours.
By analyzing changes in the roadside over
the last few hours in real-time, the soldier
can then “rewind” the information to see
where the vehicle came from that placed
the device. This change in processing
power will bring forth a whole new wave
of thinking in operations. The software
will not change dramatically, but the type
of application will evolve to take advantage
of these new capabilities.
MIL EMBEDDED: How will the
disconnect between commercial and
military technology cycles be solved?
FANELLI: Making COTS technology
more standards based will make it interchangeable
and flexible. This enables
technology upgrades to be more easily
accomplished and at a lower cost.
MIL EMBEDDED: Explain how
your company addresses obsolescence
mitigation.
FANELLI: Wind River has a well-defined
product life cycle strategy. For the most
part, we work to provide upgrade compatibility
to new technology for our customers.
This allows systems to stay current
and customers to plan migration (such as
time and dollars) to avoid obsolescence.
Retirement is the final phase of the product
life cycle and there is never a predefined
time to declare that a product is retired.
Instead, the choice to retire a product is
driven by a number of factors, including
market adoption of newer technologies,
customer needs, and Wind River’s
overall product strategy. When a product
is retired, we inform our customers well
in advance and also work with them to
address individual program needs. In fact,
we’ve addressed custom support for retired
products with a number of aerospace
customers.
MIL EMBEDDED: What are the
“hottest” military programs right now?
FANELLI: The UAV programs are currently
the hottest military programs.
There is a lot of excitement, funding, and
new ideas being fielded in the air, on the
ground, and on underwater UAVs.
MIL EMBEDDED: What are the least
likely types of programs and applications
to use COTS software technology
and civilian embedded electronics?
FANELLI: High-assurance programs may
have issues using COTS software technology
as the costs of application software,
OS, Board Support Package (BSP), and
MIL EMBEDDED: What impact does
the DOD’s Global Grid and “system
of systems” have upon the future and
architecture of embedded systems?
FANELLI: This initiative forces a move
from conventional embedded systems
design such as single board, single application,
or meeting a specific project
need, to what we call Device Software
Optimization (DSO). DSO means that
“We actually think the Linux and
greater Open Source community
will have a large impact on military
and associated programs...”
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