Rapid development of avionics systems

Abstract

As hardware development techniques have improved, the time to market in avionics systems has become increasingly dependent upon systems analysis and software development. At the same time the lion's share of life cycle costs have migrated from development to integration and maintenance. In order to remain competitive in today's government and private sectors, avionics system developers must employ a scheme which reduces systems analysis, software development, and overall integration efforts. Such a scheme includes an effective process, a flexible architecture, and the tools necessary to greatly reduce life cycle costs. This paper presents a spiral development process with an associated architecture and tool template designed to reduce time to market. Specific uses of this template on the International Space Station and the Boeing 777 avionics system are described along with the next generation implementation.