Applying the development-memory technology to avionics software support

The challenges facing avionics software support personnel are discussed, and the software support technology for advanced avionics systems that can cope with these challenges and complexities is addressed. The results of work performed by the Wright Research and Development Center (WRDC) for the embedded computer resource support improvement program are detailed. The findings of the modular embedded computer software effort conducted for WRDC´s software concepts group are described. A software development paradigm, based on automation, that addresses the knowledge gap faced by software support personnel has been identified. The underlying premise of this model is that software and its delivered documentation need to be united into an integrated system development product (ISDP), where relevant support information is organized into a structured hypermedia knowledge base. The key to this software design knowledge program is that the ISDP be integrated by means of a computerized development memory, which contains all of the motivation and rationale that influenced the development of the software. The development memory and its support software would serve a large-scale software development effort in the same way as human memory serves a single developer