By John McHale

DULUTH, Ga. - Officials at Boeing in Seattle selected the RedHawk Linux operating system from Concurrent in Duluth, Ga., for Symtx avionics test equipment used in support of the Boeing Integrated Defense Systems’ Air Force C-17 modernization program.

Concurrent’s quad processor commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS)-based iHawk systems powered by the RedHawk Linux operating system will be part of hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation testing of the C-17’s avionics subsystems.

Proven reliability and guaranteed response time were important factors that contributed to the overall attractiveness of Concurrent’s RedHawk Linux operating system, Concurrent officials say. RedHawk Linux also met the high frame rates required in the HIL simulation without frame overruns.

HIL simulation helps test components in a virtual environment in which mathematical models replace other subsystems, Concurrent officials explain. Components to be tested are inserted into a closed loop that is reproducible, systematic, fast, and more reliable than actual bench testing.

The U.S. Air Force C-17 Modernization program will use Linux technology from Concurrent.Click here to enlarge image

Linux has become attractive to military designers because it is not proprietary, says Gary Beerman, Concurrent’s director of worldwide marketing.

Beerman says Linux also competes with traditional real-time operating systems because it never performs any task in less than 30 microseconds on a dedicated processor. Most of the time it is done in 5, 6, or 7 microseconds and guaranteed at no more than 30, he says.

Military designers want quality of service, Beerman says. In other words a guaranteed level of repetition not tied to any one vendor, he explains.

Boeing uses Concurrent’s NightStar tool kit to reduce engineering time and labor costs. NightStar, a graphical-user-interface-based set of real-time software development tools, enables system builders to optimize application performance and engineering productivity. NightStar tools enable integrators to identify problems early in the project life cycle and correct them quickly. Concurrent’s MaxAda compiler and toolset also will be used for Boeing’s development of real-time Ada applications.

Concurrent’s COTS-based iHawk systems are powered by as many as eight Intel Xeon or AMD Opteron processors and as much as 64 gigabytes of memory in rack mount and tower enclosures. The iHawks are true symmetric multiprocessors that run a single copy of RedHawk Linux. Configurable with a wide range of commercially available components, the iHawk is for simulation, data acquisition, process control, and other mission-critical applications.

RedHawk Linux provides fast response to external events, optimized interprocess communication, and high I/O throughput needed for time-critical applications. RedHawk Linux, compatible with the popular Red Hat distribution, has gained acceptance as a real-time Linux operating system for high-performance applications.

Symtx, Inc. is an independent manufacturer of functional test systems for the Defense industry’s prime contractors. For more information, visit www.ccur.com.