Comparing and contrasting IEEE ATLAS 95 and ARINC 626-3

The two major users of the ATLAS test language are the US Department of Defense and its NATO allies and the commercial airlines. Each of these communities use different standards to define and maintain their languages. The DOD and NATO use IEEE ATLAS 716 while the commercial airlines use ARINC Standard 626. Current events present an opportunity to converge these two standards or, at a minimum, preclude further divergence between them. First, each community has recently published the latest version of their standard, i.e., 716-95 and 626-3. Both communities are at a hiatus point with and major airframe and its accompanying avionics on the drawing board. The IEEE is beginning work on the future of 716 ATLAS (the current name applied to this effort is ATLAS 2000) and this work will demand the avoidance of problems leading to the divergence of implementations. In addition, both ARINC and the DOD have established a formal liaison effort to maintain coordination and communication in respect to their avionics maintenance efforts with particular emphasis on ATLAS. In light of the above, the benefit of detailing the similarities and differences between 716-95 and 626-3 is manifest. This comparison can then serve as a template to guide conversion between the languages when the ATLAS 2000 standard is published. At a minimum, it will highlight the problem areas which must be addressed to preclude further divergence and provide key indicators of the design efforts which will be required in producing an ATLAS 2000 which will effectively support both of the current ATLAS user communities and hopefully prove instructive in the ATLAS 2000 design for facilitating expansion of the ATLAS user base to new communities.