DDC-I Announces Industry’s First Ada Environment For RTX-based Windows Real-Time Systems

Mixed Ada, C and Embedded C++ applications can now run in real time on Windows systems

Phoenix, AZ. May 1, 2006. DDC-I, a leading supplier of development tools for safety-critical applications, today announced the availability of its SCORE® Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for Ardence’s RTX, a real-time enabling technology for Windows applications. SCORE® is fully integrated with RTX version 6.x, a real-time extension to Windows that provides deterministic real-time multitasking, interrupt handling, and other real-time features. Now, Ada and mixed Ada/C/Embedded C++ applications developed using the SCORE® IDE can run in real time on Windows systems equipped with RTX.

“RTX transforms Windows systems into real-time platforms suitable for a wide range of applications, including mil/aero, industrial control, and telecom,” said Bob Morris, president and CEO of DDC-I. “SCORE® is the first IDE for mixed Ada, C, and Embedded C++ development that lets designers take full advantage of these real-time Windows platforms.”

“Combining the SCORE IDE with Ardence RTX provides an excellent solution for building deterministic control into embedded systems,” said Stephen Woodard, Ardence senior vice president of global operations. “The SCORE IDE helps our customers simplify development and add system functionality, which is what makes DDC-I an important technology partner for Ardence.”

SCORE® is a multi-language, object-oriented IDE for developing and deploying safety-critical applications. SCORE provides optimizing compilers for Ada, C, Embedded C ++, and Fortran77, all of which pass the applicable ACATS, PlumHall, Perennial, and FCVS compiler validation suites.

The SCORE® IDE features an intuitive GUI with a color-coded source editor, project management support, and automated build/make utilities. SCORE’s multi-language, multi-window, symbolic debugger recognizes C/EC++, Ada and Fortran syntax and expressions, and can view objects, expressions, call chains, execution traces, interspersed machine code, machine registers, program stacks, etc. The debugger supports full Ada-level debugging, including constraints, attributes, tasking, exceptions, and break on exceptions and tasking events. The debugger is non intrusive, can debug at the source or machine level, and can be enabled without changing the generated code.

SCORE® supports full debugging of RTX applications running in both the Win32 and RTSS (real-time subsystem) environment. The debugger can start processes on the local computer if it is running RTX, or communicate with a remote computer running Windows XP (or Windows XP Embedded) and the RTX environment. SCORE® supplies a debug agent that runs in the RTSS environment, and a communication layer utility that bridges the Win32 and RTSS environments. These provide all of the functionality that the debugger needs to support local/remote debugging of RTX applications.

SCORE® supports a bare run-time system certifiable to DO-178B, and an enhanced bare run-time system for use in a simulated or emulated environment. The SCORE run-time can also be linked with popular real-time operating systems (RTOSes) and native operating systems like Windows. In the SCORE/RTX integration, which provides full Ada support, DDC-I has mapped the SCORE Ada run time to RTX. Here, Ada tasks become RTX threads, and the run-time system targets the RTX API instead of the Win32 API.

RTX is a high-performance extension to the Windows operating system that enables Windows applications to run in real time. Occupying just 250 kbytes of RAM, RTX supports flexible round-robin and pre-emptive scheduling (with priority inversion avoidance), and provides precise control over IRQs, I/O and memory resources, ensuring that specified time-critical tasks execute with proper priority and 100% reliability. RTX also features a WinSock compliant TCP/IP stack that is independent of Windows, and a high-speed interprocess communications (IPC) mechanism with no limitation on data message size.

RTX operates at Windows Ring 0, providing real-time services that enable Windows applications to process sustained interrupt rates of up to 30 kHz with an average IST latency of less than one microsecond. RTX is a true Windows extension, utilizing all the standard Windows conventions, including APIs, memory management, SRIs, mutexes, and semaphores that are familiar to Windows developers. RTX applications can take full advantage of the memory protection mechanisms offered by Windows and the Intel architecture in Ring 3. Once developers complete the debug process and ensure that memory pointers and arrays are valid, the RTX application can be recompiled to run in Ring 0, where it can leverage RTX’s real-time services.

SCORE for RTX is available immediately. Pricing starts at $5000 for a single developer’s seat. About DDC-I, Inc. DDC-I, Inc. is a global supplier of software development tools, custom software development services, and legacy software system modernization solutions, with a primary focus on safety-critical applications. DDC-I's customer base is an impressive "who's who" in the commercial, military, aerospace, and safety-critical industries. DDC-I offers compilers, integrated development environments and run-time systems for C, Embedded C++, Ada, JOVIAL and Fortran application development. For more information regarding DDC-I products, contact DDC-I at 1825 E. Northern Ave., Suite #125, Phoenix, Arizona 85020; phone (602) 275-7172; fax (602) 252-6054; e-mail sales@ddci.com or visit www.ddci.com.