EFFECTS OF COMPILER AND RUN-TIME SYSTEM FEATURES ON FUTURE COMBAT SYSTEMS DESIGNS

IN THE PHASE I EXPLORATORY DEVELOPMENT EFFORT, AKM ASSOCIATES PROPOSES TO PERFORM AN ADA RUNTIME SUPPORT REQUIREMENTS ANALYSIS BASED ON THE STUDY OF A NUMBER OF REAL-TIME EMBEDDED SYSTEMS, AS WELL AS DEFINE A METHODOLOGY FOR ASSESSING THE RUNTIME SUPPORT REQUIREMENTS FOR COMMON NAVY COMBAT SYSTEMS USING ADA. THE OVERALL EFFORT WILL CONSIST OF FOUR STEPS: (1) IDENTIFY THE CRITICAL AREAS OF EMBEDDED SYSTEM PERFORMANCE WHERE AVAILABLE ADA SYSTEMS ARE EXPECTED TO BE DEFICIENT; (2) STUDY THE RUN-TIME SUPPORT REQUIREMENTS OF SOME EXISTING EMBEDDED SYSTEMS. THIS WILL BE ACCOMPLISHED BY EXAMINING THE CODE, DOCUMENTATION, AND EXECUTION OF EACH EMBEDDED SYSTEM, EXTRACTING A SET OF REQUIREMENTS FROM EACH SYSTEM; (3) PRODUCE A REQUIREMENTS DOCUMENT CLASSIFYING THE STUDIED EMBEDDED SYSTEMS IN TERMS OF THE RELEVANT AREAS OF NECESSARY PERFORMANCE, WHICH WILL INCLUDE DESCRIPTION OF THE METHODOLOGY FOR STUDYING A GIVEN EMBEDDED SYSTEM; (4) EVALUATE A NUMBER OF AVAILABLE ADA SYSTEMS IN TERMS OF THE RUN-TIME SUPPORT REQUIREMENTS. PHASE II FOLLOW-ON EFFORTS WILL INCLUDE: (A) PRODUCTION OF A SET OF BENCHMARKS FOR TESTING ADA IMPLEMENTATIONS TO DETERMINE HOW WELL THEY SATISFY THE RUN-TIME SUPPORT REQUIREMENTS; (B) FULL-SCALE EVALUATION OF AVAILABLE ADA IMPLEMENTATIONS USING THE DEVELOPED BENCHMARKS OR FORMAL REQUIREMENTS WHICHEVER ARE MOST APPROPRIATE; (C) PRODUCING A RUNTIME-REQUIREMENT PROFILER FOR USE WITH CODES WRITTEN IN ADA, JOVIAL, CMS-2, PASCAL, FORTRAN, ETC. WHICH WILL AUTOMATICALLY PRODUCE A REQUIREMENTS ANALYSIS FOR A GIVEN EMBEDDED SYSTEM.