Legacy x86 code reaches modern standards
ProductFebruary 04, 2011
Alice Moss
Military Embedded Systems
Chris A. Ciufo
General Micro Systems, Inc.
As new certification standards arise in the avionics, industrial control, and other industries, legacy x86 applications are required to recertify.
As new certification standards arise in the avionics, industrial control, and other industries, legacy x86 applications are required to recertify. Thus, LDRA’s x86 assembler flavor of its LDRA tool suite “enables certification for legacy applications that would not otherwise be certifiable,” the company says. Compatible with any x86 assembler variant, the LDRA implementation proffers assembly coverage such as bitmap coverage, gain assembly static analysis, and report/artifact creation. These capabilities are needed because legacy apps often revolve around handcoded assembly, lack the entire rendition of high-level code, or might have BIOS that is board-specific and uncertifiable.
But that’s not all. Other situations where the LDRA x86 syntax-supporting tool suite might come in handy include: 1) MC/DC scenarios, where high-level language coverage analysis is problematic; 2) compiled programs, with the possibility of instrumenting and disassembling; and 3) handcoded assembly programs that feature Board Suport Packages (BSPs). But there is hope: The LDRA implementation is able to nix the prospects of (and therefore, the expenses of) new-code writing, testing, and verification. The LDRA tool suite includes the LDRA Testbed, TBrun, TBreq, TBvision, Embed-X, TBsecure, TBevolve, TBsafe, and DO-178B Tool Qual Pack products.
