Streamlining development and testing process for complex, mission critical systems

Citation

(2002), "Streamlining development and testing process for complex, mission critical systems", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 74 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2002.12774cab.014

Streamlining development and testing process for complex, mission critical systems

Keywords: Engineering, Software, Testing

I-Logix Inc., provider of enterprise solutions for embedded applications development, recently announced the integration of model checking capability with the Statemate MAGNUM 3.0 systems engineering tool. The integration of computer-aided model checking into the design process will it is believed verify that the systems and component designs meet the fuctional requirements of the device and are fail-safe, while significantly reducing the amount of time required to thoroughly analyse, debug, and deploy the system. Model checking is available as a standalone application for new and current Statemate MAGNUM users.

"Previously, software developers have had to manually check that embedded designs comply with stringent performance, safety and quality assurance standards. With the growing complexity of systems, depth of design hierarchy and shortened time-to- market windows, such manual validation is simply not possible," said George LeBlanc, general manager for I-Logix Systems and MicroController Division. "In addition, complex systems environments often require that devices are certified for fail-safe operation. With the Statemate MAGNUM Model Checker, systems engineers can now reportedly automate the manual Validation process. Model checking. is said to not only validate that intended behaviours occur, it also checks the 'negative space,' or the complete set of negative actions.' ensuring that any unintended behaviour will not occur."

Formal model checking, is said to ensure every possible sequence of device usage and combination of sensor reading is assessed. With several hundred different configurations of the average ECU it is able to test each one manually. Additionally, by automatically stress testing the device, developers are said to be able to catch errors much earlier in the design cycle where they can be fixed at a lower cost.

I-Logix new model checking solution brings the formal verification strategies used in the development of integrated circuits (IC) and systems-on-a-chip (SoC) to the software industry. Model checking, has been brought to market through a partnership with OSC (Offis Systems and Consulting GmbH) – a spin-off from the research institute OFFIS. Together, I-Logix and OSC, are developing additional Automatic Test Generation and Model Checking capabilities aimed at traditional development processes and object- oriented UML -based designs.

"Based on our evaluation of the model checking solution from I-Logix and OSC we are determined to make it a part of our software development process in the area of by-wire-systems," said Dr. Jurgen Bortolazzi, senior manager software technologies, from the Software Technology department at DalmlerChrysler in Stuttcart, Germany. "This is an important step not only to increase the quality of the software but also to shorten the software testing cycles."

Details available From: I-Logix Europe. Tel: +44 (0) 1249 467614; Fax: +44 (0) 1249 467610; E-mail: beverley@ilogix.co.uk