T-SMART—task-safe, minimal Ada realtime toolset

This paper describes T-SMART, an Ada83 executive and toolset for the production of safety critical and hard real time applications. T-SMART consists of three main integrated parts:- Ada runtime executive audited to DO-178B standard for use in safety-critical systems- Traditional Ada compilation system tools such as Compiler, Binder and Debugger- Tools to support program verification, such as schedulability and coverage analysis.The existing toolset is suitable for building safety-critical and hard real time systems in Ada83 with some extensions and enforced coding style. The extensions have been designed to be compatible with the recent revision of the Ada language (Ada95) in order to ease the transition (both for the vendor who must audit the runtime executive, and for the user who must certify the application) when the Ada95 safety-critical market is eventually established.Although such toolsets are not uncommon, the significant differentiator is that the runtime executive has undergone the most stringent independent auditing to DO-178B standard, making it suitable for formal certification. Use of this toolset in actual safety-critical applications lays to rest the view that Ada tasking cannot be used in this market sector, and so provides valuable input to the evolution of the Safety and Security Annex in Ada95, which currently prohibits the use of Ada tasking.