Generalised simulation environment for software testing

International audienceThe cost of the verification process is certainly one of the major engineering issue in the domain of embedded safety-sensitive systems such as avionis. Test environments, made up of dedicated software and hardware means, are among the most significantly contributing factors. This paper reports about an alternative approach where test environments are totally simulated for all test phases. Simulation is not per se a new approach, the expected positive gap is expected from its generalisation. test phases coverage. Our works on this generalised simulation approach are part the ongoing RNTL/ATLAS research project

Final integration test of avionic software in full virtual platform

International audienceThe lifecycle of certified avionic software spans over decades in which its development environ-ment has to be maintained. The tests of this kind of software are carried out using variousdedicated hardware platforms, emulators and analyzers in order to run, control and observe thesoftware under test. These dedicated hardware test means are lab-centric equipments that re-quire costly specialized and permanent servicing. As an aggravating factor, they are subject toan increasingly acute obsolescence problem: it is not uncommon that some of them become ob-solete far before the end of the software development. Maintaining such equipments over decades—the software’s lifecycle— is difficult and not always guaranteed to be possible