LDRA joins, brings DO-178B/C software verification tools, standards support, and certification expertise Future Airborne Capability Environment Consortium

SAN BRUNO, Calif., 11 Sept. 2012. LDRA, a provider of automated software verification, source code analysis, and test tools, has joined The Open Group’s Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) Consortium and announced its commitment to bring its verification and standards conformance expertise to the FACE community.

The FACE Consortium, an aviation-focused professional group made up of government, industry suppliers, and customers, defines open standards that increase portability and facilitate reusable, interoperable software in safety- and security-critical systems.

LDRA has served the airborne software market for more than 37 years, improving avionics software through verification, standards conformance, and system testing, says a spokesperson. Customers and FACE partners have encouraged LDRA to join the consortium to help develop FACE-conformant applications faster and with higher quality. LDRA, with extensive experience in supporting standards conformance and critical application verification, is committed to advancing the process by which FACE-conformant applications are created and verified.

The FACE Consortium, administered by The Open Group, brings industry, government, suppliers, and customers together to develop standardized approaches and process models for the stringent security and safety needs of avionics systems. The FACE Technical Standard defines a robust, open architecture that supports interoperability and ensures application portability across FACE systems and between vendors. This standardized approach not only ensures better quality software, but also lowers implementation costs and ensures the latest advancements in technology reach the warfighter faster.

“LDRA is committed to helping customers develop high-assurance software and standards conformance through advanced static and dynamic software verification tools, unit and system-level testing, requirements engineering, and certification services,” says Ian Hennell, LDRA Operations Director. “By joining the FACE Consortium, we align our support of best-practice software development in safety- and security-critical systems with an industry-wide association and architecture focused on interoperable and portable avionics applications. It gives me great pleasure for LDRA to stand shoulder to shoulder in an effort that reduces cost and delivers shorter time to deployment for our customers.”

“As adherence to the FACE Technical Standard has become a procurement requirement of the U.S. Department of Defense aviation industry, equipment manufacturers need more efficient technology and processes to produce FACE conformant and airworthy applications faster,” explains Allen Brown, president and CEO, The Open Group. “Companies such as LDRA Technology, Inc. that exhibit a long-standing commitment to standards, verification and software quality in safety- and security-critical spaces enable the advancement of the FACE community. We welcome LDRA Technology, Inc. as a new member of the FACE Consortium and look forward to its contributions and help in achieving our goals.”

Hennell adds, “Software safety and security is fundamentally a software engineering problem that must be systematically addressed throughout the software development lifecycle. With FACE gaining tremendous momentum and the support from organizations such as NAVAIR, the U.S. Army, as well as many of our customers, the FACE common platform takes much of the complexity, cost and potential for failure out of traditionally heterogeneous avionics systems.”

LDRA offers a range of coding standard conformance and verification tools for safety- and security-critical applications. These capabilities align with and support the profiles for general-purpose, safety- and security-critical environments enabled in the FACE reference architecture. The LDRA tool suite supports certification objectives at all levels of design assurance—from requirements traceability to analysis, unit testing and validation. Certification templates and checklists establish standard-specific processes that allow applicants to meet management, development, and verification objectives.

A managed consortium hosted by The Open Group, the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) Consortium is an aviation-focused professional group made up of U.S. industry suppliers, customers and users, will create a technologically appropriate open FACE architecture, standards and business model that will result in:
• Standardized approaches and process models within avionics systems
• Lower implementation costs of FACE systems
• Standards that support a robust architecture and quality software
• Defined interoperability within FACE systems and components
• Portability of applications across multiple FACE systems and vendors
• Procurement of FACE conformant products
• More capabilities reaching the Warfighter faster
• Innovation and competition within the avionics industry

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