INSERT: a COTS-based solution for building high-assurance applications

The INSERT technology has demonstrated itself scalable to major weapon system avionics software. Initially developed at the SEI for providing software fault tolerance, its clean architecture and COTS approach enables its application to many problems. Under DARPA´s Evolutionary Design of Complex Software, this research has demonstrated the feasibility of using this technology to start with a reliable baseline algorithm, wrap it in the INSERT architecture, then safely and reliably implement new functionality with minimal testing. Along the same lines, one could use this architecture to actually do a “design a little, build a little, test a little” software development approach in real time systems. A design team could use the INSERT Architecture to “bootstrap” an OFP from the ground up and with highly reliable interim versions