System control for fault-tolerant avionics architectures

The real-time, multitasking and multiple processor configurations required for avionics systems have been examined in detail with respect to implementation in Ada to understand the problems associated with these configurations. A key element in this architecture is the software, specifically the operating system which runs as the core software element in the system. The author examines such a real-time operating system, the Ada Avionics Real-Time Software (AARTS) Operating System (AOS), developed for the Wright Laboratory (WL). Development concerns, integration issues, and testing results are discussed. The AARTS Program met its program objectives. It was demonstrated that Ada could indeed support fault-tolerant operation of an operational flight program on a distributed network of VHSIC (very high speed integrated circuit) processors.<
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