An adaptable software architecture for integrated avionics

This paper outlines the process, challenges, and preliminary results of developing a software architecture for navigation, guidance and flight director. These critical real-time functions were chosen because they represent the essential features of integrated avionics systems. The authors propose that adaptable software architectures coupled with parameterized components, tools, and processes can greatly improve the quality and maintainability of flight systems. The results discussed in this paper are based on the results of the first of four year´s work performed at IBM´s Federal System Company, Owego, NY as part of the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency´s (DARPA) Domain-Specific Software Architectures (DSSA) program. The goal of this research is to engineer an architecture and environment that enables the rapid development of avionics requirements and software. In addition, this research focuses on making architectures extendible to permit the addition of evolutionary hardware and software technologies