Avionics USA - AdaCore, a leading supplier of Ada development tools and support services, today announced that international electronics and systems group Thales has chosen the GNAT Pro technology, including several safety-qualified tools, to develop critical systems for the new Airbus A350 XWB (Xtra Wide-Body) family.

Thales will use the GNAT Pro High-Integrity Edition for DO-178B and the Ada 2005 language to build the Air Data Inertial Reference Unit (ADIRU) for the A350 XWB (Xtra Wide-Body). The ADIRU provides precise in-flight positioning information, and the new system will therefore need to be certified to the highest safety levels. It will meet Level A of the DO-178B standard and use ARINC 653 multi-partition operating system MACS2.

The project promises to advance the state of the art in safety-critical development through a number of innovations including the application of Agile Programming techniques and the safe use of Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) features. Thales will be using the Ada 2005 version of the Ada language, which has introduced additional support for real-time and safety-critical systems and for safe/reliable OOP.

"When it comes to safety-critical systems, the Ada language has an impressive pedigree and track record," said Francois Brun, Software Design Authority at Thales Aerospace Division - Navigation Unit. "The combination of GNAT Pro and Ada 2005 provides the technology we need to develop the ADIRU software for the new Airbus A350 XWB (Xtra Wide-Body)."

AdaCore is also providing a Qualified Code Standard Checker and a Coverage tool for this program. These tools will be key to the development process of the ADIRU and the generation of safety evidence. AdaCore's Coverage solution adopts an innovative approach by providing MC/DC coverage information on uninstrumented source code, through the use of a PowerPC simulator. Tool qualification material gives credit to the output of the tools, which speeds up the certification process.

"Thales is leading the way when it comes to safety-critical and avionics system development," said Michaël Friess, Technical Sales Manager of AdaCore. "It is a pleasure to partner with such a technically advanced team. Our long collaboration with Thales and our regular exchanges with their technical staff have led to strategic advances in AdaCore's offering. ADIRU is another example of a project that helps our technology progress, and that shows customers that they can count on AdaCore as a reliable partner in their development process."