gideony@microsoft.UUCP (Gideon YUVAL) (01/22/91)
From: gideony@microsoft.UUCP (Gideon YUVAL) Does anyone know what programming languages were used in the embedded software of the various Desert-Shield weapons? Thanks -- Gideon Yuval, gideony@microsof.UUCP, 206-882-8080 (fax:206-883-8101;TWX:160520)
hpb@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Harry P Bloomberg) (01/23/91)
From: Harry P Bloomberg <hpb@unix.cis.pitt.edu> In article <1991Jan22.015149.20141@cbnews.att.com> gideony@microsoft.UUCP (Gideon YUVAL) writes: > > >From: gideony@microsoft.UUCP (Gideon YUVAL) > >Does anyone know what programming languages were used in the embedded >software of the various Desert-Shield weapons? > I spent many years writing embedded software for defense conctactors, so I think I can answer this. Considering that most of the weapons now in use are actually rather old (5-15 years), I would imagine that many were written in a combination of Fortran and assembly language. Most Air Force avionics were probably written in Jovial, which may be best thought of as Pascal in a Blue Suit. I'd be real surprized if any lines of Ada are being dropped on Saddam (although a few compiliers are so large that they would probably do some great damage.) I think it's also safe to say that if the initial reports of success of all these smart weapons are true, that the sudden breeze you feel is a huge sigh of relief from military software engineers. I can just imagine some software manager saying something like, "I love the smell of software in the morning..." Harry Bloomberg
budden@trout.nosc.mil (Rex A. Buddenberg) (01/24/91)
From: budden@trout.nosc.mil (Rex A. Buddenberg) Can't speak for the sand pounders, but most embedded systems in the Navy ships fall in a couple categories: Combat Direction Systems (including the fire control for Tomahawk, gun systems, Aegis, Phalanx (CIWS), and the like) are mostly built from AN/UYK-43s and AN/UYK-44s. These monsters are almost univerasally coded in CMS-2. The early versions of Joint Operations Tactical System are hosted on commercial HP9020 computers and coded in Rocky Mountain BASIC [!!]. While the system is 'real time' in terms of tactical plot, it is not 'real-time' in terms of being event driven. More current versions of JOTS and Tactical Flag Command Center (same software for both) are hosted on a ruggedized Sun workstation and mostly coded in C, although there is an incremental migration to Ada in progress. This implementation is not 'embedded' in terms of 'real time' event driven systems -- the computer keeps up by sheer horsepower relative to the data loading. So that may not meet your definition of embedded, but it is quite adequate to the mission requirements. If you're interested in the future, an opinion from a very interested observer. There is a bit of controversy going on in NAVSEA right now with the 'standardized UYK-43's' on one side and the workstations- on-a-LAN gang on the other. My money is on the latter. Rex Buddenberg
schweige@aldebaran.cs.nps.navy.mil (jeffrey schweiger) (01/25/91)
From: schweige@aldebaran.cs.nps.navy.mil (jeffrey schweiger) In article <1991Jan23.032823.435@cbnews.att.com> hpb@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Harry P Bloomberg) writes: > >In article <1991Jan22.015149.20141@cbnews.att.com> gideony@microsoft.UUCP (Gideon YUVAL) writes: >>Does anyone know what programming languages were used in the embedded >>software of the various Desert-Shield weapons? > I'd be real surprized if any lines of Ada are being dropped on Saddam >(although a few compiliers are so large that they would probably do some >great damage.) >Harry Bloomberg There is Ada code associated with the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM). One of the systems (Mission Data Distribution System) in the Theater Mission Planning Centers that preplan the TLAM routes is partially written in Ada. A command and control system partially derived from this and used for TLAM C2 issues (the Mission Display System) is also written in Ada. Jeff Schweiger -- ******************************************************************************* Jeff Schweiger Standard Disclaimer CompuServe: 74236,1645 Internet (Milnet): schweige@taurus.cs.nps.navy.mil *******************************************************************************