Aerospace & Defense Case Studies
Honeywell Aerospace & Honeywell Defence
Honeywell Aerospace and Honeywell Defence required high performance DO-178B certifiable OpenGL ES and OpenGL SC graphics libraries to support various commercial and military avionics display programs. The solutions required support for both PowerPC and x86 processors as well as several real-time operating systems (RTOS).
After rigorous performance and reliability testing of ALT’s products, Honeywell selected ALT Software’s DO-178B certifiable OpenGL ES and OpenGL SC graphics display drivers. Our products have since been deployed in aircraft worldwide to enable a variety of Honeywell avionics displays. ALT’s embedded graphics libraries support several real-time operating systems including Green Hills INTEGRITY, Wind River VxWorks, and DDC-I Deos. Our display drivers also support Microsoft Windows to accommodate software development and testing. In addition to the graphics libraries, ALT also provided Honeywell with all the software code traceability and other certification artifacts required for their DO-178B certification effort, for both Intel x86 and Freescale PowerPC based avionics display platforms.
US Navy – Target Acquisition Advanced Development
The U.S. Navy was implementing high resolution graphics into their targeting systems to enable weapons personnel to track more targets simultaneously, more quickly lock onto threats, and increase targeting accuracy. This legacy systems upgrade would include sophisticated hardware accelerated graphics.
ALT Software delivered a high performance OpenGL ES graphics library for the AMD ATI Radeon GPU selected by the manufacturer for graphics rendering functions. Our graphics solution also included a long term migration path that cost-effectively addressed the U.S. Navy’s future software and hardware upgrade requirements. ALT was selected because of our track record of delivering scalable safety critical embedded graphics solutions for aerospace and defence environments, and our long-term strategic relationships with GPU manufacturers.
CMC –Esterline
When the US Navy chose the Raytheon T6B as its next-generation jet trainer for naval aviators, Raytheon put in place an aggressive production schedule that included modern integrated cockpit display systems.
CMC-Esterline put together a bid that was compliant with Raytheon’s tight delivery schedule and included ALT’s DO-178B certifiable OpenGL SC graphics display drivers. As a previous ALT Software client, CMC was confident that ALT could meet the demands of this avionics project despite the rigorous efforts involved in rapidly delivering a software solution compliant with DO-178B certification requirements. CMC won the contract and ALT successfully delivered a DO-178B certifiable ATI Radeon OpenGL graphics driver running on the ARINC 653 compliant Green Hills INTEGRITY-178B RTOS.
Esterel Technologies
Esterel Technologies provides a “SCADE Display” HMI development tool used for graphics design and code generation for avionics applications with DO-178B certification requirements. They required a software partner to support customers using this tool to create applications for embedded systems with hardware accelerated graphics.
Esterel and ALT forged a strategic relationship where ALT is the Esterel preferred technology partner for Esterel customers who require hardware accelerated graphics support. ALT’s graphics libraries bring out the full graphics rendering capabilities of a device’s underlying hardware, allowing SCADE Display application designers to focus on leveraging Esterel’s design tools to create an ideal end-user experience. ALT Software is now Esterel’s long-term preferred partner for embedded and DO-178B certifiable graphics solutions. ALT’s OpenGL products have been deployed with Esterel’s SCADE Display by dozens of Tier 1 aircraft and system manufacturers.
GE Fanuc Controls Embedded Computing (now GE Intelligent Platforms)
GE Fanuc Embedded Systems, manufacturer of ruggedized graphics boards for the Mil/Aero market, needed a software supplier with expertise in hardware accelerated graphics to provide their customers with embedded display drivers that support their graphics boards and single board computers (SBC) with a number of different real-time operating systems (RTOS).
GE Fanuc selected ALT Software to provide a series of embedded graphics display drivers for their PCI Mezzanine Cards (PMC) that utilize AMD ATI Radeon graphics processors. Our solutions support the OpenGL and OpenGL SC open standard graphics API and GE Fanuc’s proprietary video API. Today, ALT provides long-term technical support to GE Intelligent Platform’s customers as well as system integration services and DO-178B certifiable graphics display drivers for safety critical environments. ALT’s graphics display drivers have allowed GE Fanuc (now GE Intelligent Platforms) to offer their Mil/Aero customers a turnkey COTS graphics solution complete with long-term support and customization services, which has contributed to dozens of GE design wins worldwide.
Boeing B-52 Legacy System Upgrade Program
As part of Boeing’s B-52 cockpit display system upgrades, they required embedded OpenGL graphics drivers and embedded X Windows support for the AMD ATI Radeon based GE Intelligent Platforms G2 Graphics PMC graphics board. Their use of a high performance PMC Module adds hardware accelerated graphics support to VME and Compact PCI platforms and includes functionality such as video capture and dual-display support.
ALT delivered 2D and 3D OpenGL graphics drivers and embedded X11 libraries that provide support for X11 client-server based applications deployed on the Green Hills INTEGRITY real-time operating system (RTOS).
Airbus A380 Avionics Displays
Airbus required a DO-178B certifiable graphics driver to enable the graphics rendering functions of the Onboard Airport Navigation System (OANS) in the cockpit of their ultra-high-capacity A380 flagship aircraft.
ALT Software delivered a DO-178B certifiable software package that utilized their OpenGL SC (safety-critical) graphics API. Our solution included custom features and functionality enhancements as well as all the code traceability and additional artifacts required for DO-178B certification by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Today ALT’s drivers are deployed in A380 aircraft worldwide, providing improved safety and situational awareness to the flight crews of this immense engineering achievement.