Embedded Executives Talk Next Generation Military Avionics Systems

De ce m be r/Ja nua ry 2021

Embedded Executives Talk Next Generation Military
Avionics Systems

BY: KELSE Y RE ICHMANN

The dema nd for e mbedded avio nics s yste ms is gro wing despite
the COV ID -19 pa ndemic. The need for adva nced militar y aircraft
communicatio ns, na vigatio n, a nd s ur veilla nce capabilities is
being met with tec hnological inno vatio ns in emergi ng embedded
syste ms co nfig uratio ns, designs, a nd sta ndards .

Leaders in the embedded s yste ms i ndus tr y inc luding Rodger
Hosking, Vice-President o f Pe ntek, Mike P yne, Director of
Strategic Accounts a nd Solutions Arc hitec t at CoreAVI, Be nja min
Brosgol, se nior technical sta ff at AdaCore, a nd Rober t Tice, Lead
Tec hnica l Account Manager at AdaCore spoke to Avionics
International about how the pandemic e ffec ted their
manufac turi ng e nvironme nts, emergi ng tre nds in the ind ustr y,
and ne w tec hno logical de velopme nts.

Avionics: What was your development and design
environment like before and af ter the impact of the COVID -19
pandemic started to force socia l distancing and o ther work
restrict ions in February? What has been the biggest change?

Brosgol (AdaCore): AdaCore’s software prod uc tio n
infras tr ucture has a lwa ys been based on a distrib uted
developme nt e nviro nme nt, so the work restrictio ns imposed b y
COVID-19 did not ha ve a major impact. The compa ny was
founded i n the mid-1990s with its s taff geograp hically separated
(mainly in New York a nd Paris, with additiona l perso nne l in
satellite home o ffices in the U.S. a nd abroad) . The distributed
nature of our de velop ment p rocess necessitated i ntrod uci ng
effecti ve meas ures for inter nal comm unicatio n, i ncludi ng a ticket
tracking mec hanism to pro vi de an a udit trail o f discussio ns
under lying tec hnica l a nd b usiness decisions, as we ll as
automa ted proced ures for co nduc ting regression tes ts o n o ur

products (c ur re ntly millions of li nes of tes t cases r un o n do ze ns
of pla tfor ms daily) .

Benjamin Brosgol is a senior member of the technical staff at AdaCore.
Ove r the 25+ yea rs tha t we ha ve bee n i n b usi ness, o ur compa ny
and its infrastruc ture ha ve e volved a nd g rown sig nificantly, b ut
its engi ne has a lwa ys been a geograp hically distributed
workforce . We ha ve there fore take n ad va ntage o f the ma ny
adva nces in comm unicatio n a nd co llabora tive i nte r net / c lo ud -
based techno logies.

Althoug h the pa ndemic has p ro ved detrime ntal and e ven
catastrop hic in ma ny i nd ustries, we were we ll prepared to
weather the disr uptio n a nd to ser ve our c usto mers. The biggest
cha nge was not on the tec hnical or b usiness side b ut ra ther o n
the social side: peop le need huma n i nterac tion, a nd a ltho ug h
Zoom (or i n o ur case Google Meet) can bri ng people together
virtua lly, we miss the social inte ractions tha t come with seei ng
our colleagues in pe rson at the o ffice, or meeting c ustomers at a
confere nce or a n on-site visit.

Hosking (Pentek): As an esse ntial busi ness for na tional
defense, we we re fo rtunate ly a llo wed to sta y ope n thro ug ho ut the
pandemic. We undertook major initiati ves for ha nd sa niti zers,
cleani ng, social dista ncing, a nd mask weari ng, whic h ha ve no w
become automatic be ha vior.

The biggest impact o n o ur emplo yees has been health fears , b ut
fortunate ly not the unce rtainty o f unemp lo yme nt or fina ncial
hards hips, as with so ma ny other b usi nesses.

Pyne (CoreAVI): CoreAVI’s e ngineeri ng de velopme nt
enviro nme nt is a mi x o f both hardware a nd softwa re design.
Because of the distrib uted na ture o f o ur wo rksites, a
remote/work- from - home i nfras tr uc ture was alread y in place .
Whe n the res trictions of the pa ndemic were e nforced, CoreAVI
was we ll eq uipped to ha ndle the lockdown.

A few o f o ur sites that required ha rdware tes ting were ma nned b y
skeleto n cre ws, b ut for the most pa rt a ll de velopme nt objec tives
were proper ly addressed using a variety o f re mote access tools .
The biggest c ha nge was k nowi ng that we co uldn’t gather
together, e ven if we wa nted to.

Avionics: One of the crucia l act ivit ies for embedded systems
development and manufacturing activ ities is co llaboration
among engineers, product managers and others. How has the
collaboration process changed as a result of COVID -19?

Brosgol (AdaCore): AdaCore has alwa ys maintained a
collaborati ve p rocess tha t s upports de velopme nt a nd
manageme nt teams distrib uted geograp hically (i ncludi ng
inter natio nally) and across m ultiple time zones , a nd this process
was we ll s uited to meet the c hallenges raised b y COV ID -19.

Even before the pa ndemic we were making use of team -based
tools s uc h as Goog le Docs to s hare i nfor mation in a co ntrolled
fashio n a nd Google C ale ndar to coordinate remo te tea m
meetings, a nd we had migra ted some i ntra -compa ny
communicatio n to Slack cha nne ls in order to red uce the email
burde n. So again we were well poised to deal with the “ne w
norma l” imposed b y the various restrictions .

The compa ny’s a nnual release c yc le was co nd ucted norma lly and
completed o n-sc hed ule d uri ng 2020 ( Q1 ro llo ut o f new ma jor
release of all prod uc ts, Q3 minor re lease, Q4 pre view release of
ne xt year’s version). The main c ha nge was the i ncreased usage
of videoconfe renci ng a nd webinars to keep sta ff (a nd c usto mers)
up to date .

Hosking (Pentek): During the weeks our e nginee rs were working
at home, prod uct deve lopme nt effo rts s uffe red from less
collaboratio n a nd b rainsto rming , which are esse ntial to solvi ng
problems a nd making decisions. After bei ng isolated and wo rking
from ho me, e ngi neers welcomed the oppor tunity to re tur n to the
workplace again. No w, we a ll fully appreciate tha t the interactio n
with others a nd a meani ngful p urpose is e xtreme ly impor ta nt to
mental a nd emotio nal we ll-bei ng.

Rodger Hosking is the Vice-President of Pentek.
Pyne (CoreAVI): Fortunately, o ur collaboratio n tools were we ll in
place we ll before the pa ndemic hit. During the lockdown,
CoreAVI has relied hea vily upo n tools s uc h as Microso ft Teams

for mee tings , c hats , sc hed uli ng, insta nt messaging a nd file
shari ng. A variety of other doc ume nt ma nageme nt and c ustomer
manageme nt s yste ms, which we re in place we ll before the
pandemic, made the collaboration process “tra nsitio n” fairly easy.
CoreAVI’s IT gro up has been hailed as tr ue he roes d uring the
past year b ut b y a nd large , the re were ver y fe w ne w processes o r
tools i ncorporated b y o ur compa ny to deal with remote access
and lockdown co nditions .

Avionics: COVID-19 has changed demand for some
technologies and aircraft such as in the commerc ial market.
How has it changed the demand for some of your
technologies?

Brosgol (AdaCore): AdaCore’s main cus tomers are from the
aerospace and de fense sector , a nd i ndeed we did see a
temporar y dip in dema nd fro m the comme rcial aerospace side.
Howe ver , se vera l factors mitigated this iss ue:

Demand from the defe nse ind ustr y was not adve rsely affec ted b y
the pande mic and in fact e xperienced an up -tick. This is per haps
due i n par t to the growi ng i nteres t i n the Future Airbor ne
Capabilities Environme nt (FACE) effor t, in whic h AdaCore is
actively participating .

AdaCore’s products are sold o n a s ubscription basis, a nd se vera l
major c us tomers had m ulti - year s ubscriptions that carried
throug h 2020. S ubscription star t a nd end dates were s taggered
throug ho ut the year, a voiding ma jor per turbatio ns i n o ur re ve nue
stream.

AdaCore’s products are geared in ge neral to c us tomers who
need to de velop c ritical so ftware, and too ls tha t ca n he lp mee t
requireme nts fo r re liability, sa fety, a nd sec urity see a co nti nuing
demand. Due to the nature of the i nd ustries we se r ve, p roject,
product, a nd de ve lopme nt lifec yc les are ofte n m uc h lo nger tha n
other ma rkets. This a llo ws us to create lo ng - lasting re lations hips
with o ur cus tomers both a t the comme rcial a nd p roduc t s uppor t
leve l. This has allowed us to s how the fle xibi lity to help and
support them throug h this co nti nuing pe riod of c ha nge.

Hosking (Pentek): We supply mostly to the M IL-AERO marke t so
we ha ve not been impacted b y the d rastic red uctio ns i n
commercial air tra ffic.

Pyne (CoreAVI): The pa ndemic has s ubs ta ntial ly impacted
severa l of the markets ser ved b y CoreAVI. Our co mmercial

aerospace cus tomers were hit the hardest, fo llo wed b y the
automo tive marke t. The US Defe nse market has re mained s tro ng.
The fo reign de fense marke t sa w some softeni ng. Because
CoreAVI prod ucts are i n s uc h hig h dema nd , o ur biggest
challe nge was de veloping a s trateg y on how to most effec tive ly
grow d uri ng the pa ndemic.

Mike Pyne is the Director of Strategic Accounts and Solutions Architect at
CoreAVI.
Avionics: Research and development investment in the
creation of next generation technologies such as ar tif icia l
intelligence was increasing prior to the impact of t he
pandemic. However, considering the unprecedented impact
of COVID -19 on demand, has that changed your focus in
terms of R&D? Are there st ill next generation architectures,
processing or standards you’re focused on developing
despite COVID -19?

Brosgol (AdaCore): AdaCore is purs uing seve ral “ ne xt
generatio n” tec hnologies:

As noted above , we are acti vely i nvolved in the FACE effor t, both
by co ntributing to the e volution of the FACE Tec hnical Sta ndard
(in par ticular to e ns ure appropriate s uppor t fo r the Ada l a ng uage)
and b y supp lying tools a nd r un- time libraries that help deve lopers
produce FACE conforma nt softwa re tha t is re usab le, reliable, a nd
safe.

We are i nvestigating tec hnologies tha t ca n combi ne model -based
engineeri ng a nd forma l methods, so tha t the de veloper ca n
automa tically verify critical ass urance properties a t eac h s tep of
the software life c ycle.

COVID-19 has no t c ha nged o ur foc us a nd R&D inves tme nt; o n
the co ntra r y we see these as i ncreasing ly impor tant i n 2021 a nd
beyo nd.

Hosking (Pentek): The pandemic did not s hift the foc us o n o ur
product de velopme nt efforts , which are mostly fo r mi litar y a nd
gover nme nt ma rkets.

Pyne (CoreAVI): Like most co mpanies with a foc us o n lo ng term
growth a nd marke t e xpa nsion, CoreAVI do ubled its efforts in
research a nd de velopme nt d uri ng the pande mic. The
opportunities for Ar tificial Intelligence (A I) a nd Mac hine Learni ng
(ML) i n the post -COV ID-19 wo rld will be unp recedented . Since
CoreAVI has e xtensi ve e xperie nce with GP U arc hitec tures a nd
their use to accelera te infe re ncing of convo lutio nal ne ura l
networks for A I/ML, a lo ng with a pro ve n track record for safety
critical/deter ministic softwa re so lutions , the marke t gro wth
prospects are so compelling that the commitment o f R&D funds
in this a rea was an eas y decision.

Avionics: What areas of the e mbedded systems market do
you see changes or new developments in demand in 2021?

Tice (AdaCore): Embedded s ystems deve lopme nt, as we kno w
it, has c ha nged. Once upo n a time, applications we re de veloped
to be deplo yed o ne -per-card in a la rge backpla ne o r in separate
federated bo xes. But no w, with faster silicon, s ys tems o n c hips
(SOC), a nd tec hnologies like hyper visors , those applications can
be conso lidated onto a single board, sa ving space , time , a nd
mone y i n dep lo yme nt.

Hyper visors give a vionics applicatio n arc hitec ts a n i nteres ting
leve l o f fle xibility tha t p revio usly was not a vailab le. Fo r e xamp le,

using a DO-178C read y hyper visor tec hno logy, a n arc hitect ca n
combine safe ty-critical a nd no n-safe ty-critical applications o n a
single piece of silicon, a llo wing the hyper visor to ha ndle
separation.

This mea ns that a n arc hitect can le ve rage a bare - meta l (o r
safety-cer tified RTOS) solution to ac hieve safe ty-critical Le vel A
certification for a compo ne nt on o ne par tition a nd utili ze a n OS
for no n-sa fety c ritical compo ne nts at Leve l D o n ano ther
partition, all o n the sa me pla tfor m. Adding func tionality to this
syste m is as easy as adding gues ts to the hyper visor, which is a
muc h more cost-e ffecti ve methodolog y tha n adding boxes or
cards to backp lanes .

Robert Tice is the lead technical account manager for AdaCore.
Hosking (Pentek): We see increased dema nd for impro ving
performa nce o f mi litar y radars, S IGINT, a nd elec tro nic
warfare /co unter measures. The threat from C hina is drivi ng s tro ng
interest in ar tificial inte llige nce a nd machi ne lear ning
capabilities.

Pyne (C oreAVI): For 2021 we see a s tro ng de fense marke t with
an i ncreasing need for embedded s yste ms for bo th
retrofits /upgrades a nd for ne w p latfo rms. We see a ver y stro ng
automo tive marke t where hundreds o f distrib uted/federated
microcontrollers will s tart to b e co nsolidated i nto a fe w, more
capable, embedded processors .

We see the begi nni ngs o f reco ver y fo r the comme rcial aerospace
market with so me intrigui ng possibilities for the urban air mobility
segment.
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