SALT LAKE CITY, Ut.—The ARA Member AdaCore has announced that Hamilton Sundstrand has chosen the GNAT Pro as the Ada development environment for the software running in their Air Conditioning Pack airborne software configuration, which regulates cabin air temperature on the Boeing 787 aircraft. As part of the contract, AdaCore will adapt its flagship GNAT Pro Ada development environment to generate code for the 787 Pack Control Unit's designated MPC5554 microcontroller, and provide support for this new, specialized configuration.

The Boeing 787's Pack Control Unit is the first cabin air temperature control system to utilize Freescale's™ MPC5554 microcontroller (MCU). Hamilton Sundstrand chose the MPC5554 MCU because it offers a BookE compliant PowerPC™ core, a high level of integration, high system performance, reliability, real-time control and the ability to reuse legacy software architecture, reducing development cycle time.

"Implementing GNAT Pro for the PowerPC BookE compliant e200z6 core of the 5554 is very exciting for AdaCore," said Robert Dewar, President of AdaCore. "The MPC5554 is loaded with control functionality and is clearly attractive to designers of critical embedded systems for which Ada is the preferred programming language."

The processor is a variation on the standard AIM PowerPC architecture that AdaCore has been supporting for many years. The differences derive from the processor's incorporation into highly integrated embedded microcontrollers, and the port of the GNAT Pro toolset utilizes all of the work done for the PowerPC while taking advantage of the GCC compiler technology's flexibility to adapt to the different selection of instructions.

"This is the first GNAT Pro port targeting an MPC5554 processor, and we are looking forward to this opportunity," added Dewar. "Our advanced Ada environment will help Hamilton Sundstrand manage their development and exploit the advantages of Ada for mission-critical systems."

"We knew that finding an Ada compiler vendor that could design, deliver and support our designated hardware platform would be critical to the success of this project," said Andrew Wayner, Senior Software Designer at Hamilton Sundstrand. "We selected AdaCore based on previous technical expertise with both Ada compilation systems and with avionics application development environments, specifically on the A380 cabin air conditioning system project. The company also demonstrated a serious commitment to port GNAT Pro to the MPC5554 and see the project through to fruition."

Two identical, dual channel, fully digital Pack Control Units (PCU) provide most of the control and monitoring of the Cabin Air Conditioning and Temperature Control System (CACTCS) on the Boeing 787. The CACTCS provides cabin heating and cooling for passenger, crew and cargo zones utilizing two air cycle packs, each controlled by a PCU. Each channel of a PCU contains a Freescale MPC5554, which provides a plethora of features such as CAN communications, Queued Analog-to-Digital Converters and an Enhanced Modular Input/Output Subsystem. The PCU takes advantage of these features to acquire data from a multitude of sensor types, including pressure and temperature as well as providing accurate and real-time control of its motor control outputs.

GNAT Pro is a robust and flexible Ada development environment based on the GNU GCC compiler technology. It comprises a full Ada compiler, an Integrated Development Environment (GPS, the GNAT Programming Studio), a comprehensive toolset including a visual debugger, and a set of supplemental libraries and bindings. It is distributed with complete source code, and is backed by rapid and expert support service.

GNAT Pro has been used by industry and government customers worldwide in professional, mission-critical software products ranging from small-footprint real-time embedded applications to large-scale information management systems. It has been ported to more platforms, both native and embedded, than any other Ada technology.

Hamilton Sundstrand, a United Technologies Company, is headquartered in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, and manufactures and services advanced technology aerospace and industrial systems. It employs approximately 16,000 people worldwide. United Technologies, based in Hartford, Conn., is a diversified company that provides high-technology products and services to the aerospace and commercial building industries.

Founded in 1994, AdaCore is the leading provider of commercial software solutions for Ada, a modern programming language designed for large, long-lived applications where reliability, efficiency and safety are absolutely critical. AdaCore's flagship product is GNAT Pro, the commercial-grade open Ada development environment, which comes with expert online support and user-friendly licensing and is available on more platforms than any other Ada technology. AdaCore has customers worldwide; see http://www.adacore.com/customers.php for more information.

Use of Ada and GNAT Pro continues to grow in high-integrity and safety-critical applications, including commercial and defense aircraft avionics, air traffic control, railroad systems, financial services and medical devices. AdaCore has North American headquarters in New York and European headquarters in Paris. www.adacore.com

Freescale™ is a trademark of Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. The PowerPC™ name is a trademark of IBM Corp. and is used under license. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners.