Successful migration of a legacy system to an open architecture

Upgrading legacy ATE while retaining the existing Test Program Set investment is a technical and economic challenge to the military and commercial test industry. The replacement of legacy ATE with commercial ATE, however, is only the start of the problem. Once an ATE is upgraded, the problem remains with constantly emerging technology that promotes rapid obsolescence. An upgrade to an open commercial architecture reduces this effort. This paper identifies one ATE, the F-16 Improved Avionics Intermediate Shop (IAIS), that has undergone a metamorphosis into a next generation open commercial architecture. Guiding this development were standard software and hardware interfaces that form an open system architecture. Through the implementation of this architecture, the new commercial-based IAIS increased its ability for future technology insertion and demonstrated its capability to execute the existing TPSs without modification. This paper highlights the upgrade of the F-16 IAIS ATE to an open system architecture and details the actual degree of TPS transportability achieved. Specifically, it identifies the processes and key attributes that were invaluable in reaching this high level of success and addresses the open architecture from the view of future hardware and software technology insertion