Who is Using Ada - Some Non-Defense Ada Applications

The "Who's Using Ada" Report

Some Non-Defense Ada Applications
February 1993

summarized by
Michael B. Feldman
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
The George Washington University
Washington, DC 20052
202-994-5253 (voice)
202-994-5296 (fax)
mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu

Here is a list of non-defense Ada projects of which I am aware. Previous versions of this list were called " Non-Government" ; this one is called "Non-Defense". This is because the line between a purely commercial project and a government one is increasingly fuzzy, especially in Europe where the telecommunications industry is quasi-governmental and governments often own stock in companies.

In the U.S., two very large government but non-defense Ada projects are the FAA Advanced Automation system for air traffic control, and the NASA Space Station Freedom software. The U.S. projects on the list below are in addition to these two. Note that Lawrence Livermore National Lab is a Department of Energy facility which points out that it was under no Ada mandate.

Any such list must have selection criteria. I prefer to focus on actual, fielded applications, and therefore I have not listed compilers, tools, reuse libraries, etc., of which there are many coded in Ada. Software development tools are interesting, but they are in a different category altogether from fielded systems.

The reader will note that many of these systems are in the aerospace and telecommunications domains, both in the US and elsewhere. Naturally this is not a coincidence; both domains require highly reliable software, and many of the companies involved have built upon their defense experience and chosen Ada for non-defense applications. On the other hand, one can see that Ada is also making inroads into other industries, especially banking and securities. There are also several "shrink-wrap" products for personal computers.

Readers are invited to correct or add entries and send them to me. The CAUWG chair, Ben Brosgol, can be reached at brosgol@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu or (617) 270-0030; Ralph Crafts, the editor of Ada Strategies, a commercial Ada-oriented newsletter, and Ada Anthology, a summary of newsletter articles, can be reached at sst@mcimail.com or (304) 725-6542. The Ada Information Clearinghouse also keeps track of projects like these; reach them at adainfo@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu or (800) AdaIC11. Thanks to Tom Erickson and Xavier du Joie of Alsys for their recent long list of additions to the list.

Australia 	CSA: ground stations for an L-Band car-to-satellite telephone
	system in Australia.  Multiple sites, many processors linked
	in real-time; Sun SPARC, Sun SPARCengine; SunAda, VADSWorks.

Belgium	Eurocontrol Brussels: Central Flow Management Unit (air traffic
	control), HP 9000/HP-UX, Alsys.

Belgium ICT Automatisering: STAS-300 - automatic operation of liquid
	fuels depots, VAX/VMS, DEC Ada.

Belgium Meersschaert N.V.: Software for weaving-looms and jacquard-
	machines.

Belgium	Spacebel Informatique S.A.: Mock-up software for Hermes space
	shuttle localisation, Sun3, TLD Ada (HSDE).

Belgium	Spacebel Informatique S.A.: VICOS - Verification and Integration
	Check Out System for space station Columbus test beds, Verdix.

Belgium	Spacebel Informatique S.A.: USS - User Support Services, library
	of embedded software for space station Columbus Data Management
	System, Sun 3/4, Alsys.

Belgium	Trasys: DIMOS - Distributed Monitoring System for nuclear power
	plant, 300,000 lines, VAX/VMS & VAX/ELN, DEC Ada.

Belgium Trasys: Application software of CANAC air traffic control system
	for Brussels national airport.

Belgium	Trasys: NGP - Navigation, Guidance and Piloting, prototyping of
	part of embedded software of Hermes space shuttle, Sun SPARC,
	Verdix.

Belgium	Trasys: prototyping of Core System and Mission Management for
	Columbus space station.

Belgium	Trasys: software for test benches of ARIANE 5 rocket.

Belgium	Trasys: PRODOS - dosimetry control system for nuclear power
	plant.

Canada 	Canadian Space Agency: satellite payload control system.

Canada 	Canadian Marconi: Global Positioning Satellite software for
	Boeing 777.

Canada 	Eyepoint, Inc: Tunis Operating System in Ada.

Canada	Hughes: CAATS - Canadian Air Traffic Control System, Rational.

Chile 	Empresa Nacional de Aeronautica (ENAER): real-time avionics
	system, Data General/TeleSoft

Europe 	European Space Agency: ground station operator environment;
	nearly all space station software

Finland  	Nokia Information Systems: online banking systems.

France 	CEA Caradache: simulator for nuclear reactor management,
	HP9000-300, Alsys.

France 	CGA: Systems for mail sorting machines, Sun3-->68k, Alsys.

France 	Citroen/3FP: Programmed Robots Management System for automotive
	production lines.

France 	CMG: turnkey signal processing, industrial automation.

France 	CSEE: Braking system for French High Speed Train (TGV),
	VAX-->68k, Alsys.

France 	Euristic Systems: expert system to manage continuous data
	acquisition, ApolloDomain network, Alsys.

France 	GEC Alsthom: fully-committed to Ada for railroad subsystems
	including French high-speed train (TGV) network and Channel
	Tunnel.

France 	SAPEX: industrial cutting of Airbus items, various computers,
	Alsys.

France 	SEMA Group: software to control nuclear power plant, DOS, Alsys.

France 	Sextant Avionique: Global Positioning System for Aircraft,
	VAX-->68020, Alsys.

France 	SIGLOS Industries: Manufacturing process control system
	(monitoring system), DOS, Alsys.

France	SNCF: Astree program - project for automatic train control,
	Rational.

France 	Strategies: CADWIN, PC-based CAD/CAM product, Alsys.

France 	SYSECA: new French air-traffic control system.

France 	Thomson-CSF: operational civilian Air Traffic Control systems
	in Copenhagen, Kenya, Pakistan, simulators in Switzerland,
	Ireland, more ATC systems coming.

France 	Thomson DOI/Mercier Bugatti: Braking system and landing gear
	control system for Airbus 330 and 340.

France 	TOTAL (oil company): computer-assisted extraction of oil
	products, bare 68020, Alsys.

Germany 	Alcatel SEL: satellite positioning, Sun-3-->80386, Alsys.

Germany 	Daimler-Benz (Mercedes): calculation of data for automobile
	construction, HP9000-700, Alsys.

Germany 	Dermalog: identification of fingerprints,
	PC-->Transputer, Alsys.

Germany 	Dornier: ARIANE 5 spacecraft, VAX/VMS-->68k, Alsys.

Germany 	dSpace: tools to control fast systems such as hard disks,
	vehicle suspensions, robots, Alsys.

Germany 	ERNO Raumfahrttechnik: COLUMBUS part of Space Station Freedom,
	HP9000-700, Alsys.

Germany 	Eurocontrol: air traffic control system, Sun SPARC, Alsys.

Germany 	Fichtel & Sachs/Univ. of Paderborn: Computer-Aided Mechatronic
	Laboratory, various computers.

Germany 	Quelle AG (mail order company): mail order process simulation.

Germany 	Siemens AG: flight control agency emergency communication system.

Germany 	Sietec: electron-beam lithography system, DOS, Alsys.

Holland 	Royal Dutch Post and Telecom: PC-based system for control and
	monitoring of public telecommunication service, MS-DOS, Alsys.

Japan 	Nippon Telephone and Telegraph: videotex communication system,
	mobile communication system, satellite communication system,
	database management system; all commercially available.

Norway 	Norwegian Telecom: X.400 P7 implementation, supporting
	electronic mail between computers through satellites,
	various computers, Alsys.

Norway 	TeleServe: fault-tolerant (of class highly-available), real-time
	SQL servers, for telecommunications applications. TeleSoft Ada.

Spain 	CESEL: radar and flight plan processing for Spanish air-traffic
	control centers.

Spain 	Teice Control, SA: control system for 40 buildings in industrial
	area of Madrid Airport (A/C, power supply, fire-detection, etc.)

Sweden 	ESAB: robotic welding stations for use in flexible manufacturing
	systems, TeleSoft, Vax and 680x0.

Sweden 	SattControl: warehouse systems

Sweden 	Swedish Telecom: system for supervision of private-branch
	telephone exchanges (PBX's)

Sweden 	Volvo: materials handling system (robotic parts carts), TeleSoft.

Sweden 	Color display element of hospital building control and monitoring
	system: 1600 I/O channels, 200 dynamic color displays, lots of
	tasking, Meridian.

Switzerland 	ABB Relays AG: power transmission, HP9000-700-->68k, Alsys.

Switzerland 	Click Informatik AG: control of air-conditioning and heating
	systems, HP9000-700, Alsys.

Switzerland 	LinkVest: real-time stock exchange management system, VAX.

Switzerland 	Tegimenta AG: analysis system for medical diagnosis,
	HP900-300-->68k, Alsys.

Switzerland 	Union Bank: Operations Control System to manage distributed
	Vax-en.

UK 	Avantek: Access Mac (lets MS DOS disk drives read, write,
	format Macintosh disks), Janus/Ada.

UK 	CORAL: DACMAN, simulation and data monitoring system for auto
	engines, IBM PC, Alsys, Meridian.

UK 	Cray Systems Space Division: real-time training simulator
	for satellite controllers.

UK 	Eurocontrol: Flight management system, Alsys.

UK	Ferranti International: Generic tools to build nuclear power
	station monitoring systems, Rational.

UK	Ferranti (customer is Nuclear Electric): Advanced Gas-Cooled
	Reactor (AGR) refurbishment program, Rational.

UK 	GeoMatrix: PC demographics research system, Alsys.

UK	IBM: NERC Program (New Enroute Center) - air traffic control,
	Rational.

UK 	Orbitel Mobile Communications: cellular phone base station, Alsys.

UK 	Process Plant and Chemicals: chemical process control systems,
	DOS, Alsys.

UK 	Pulse Train Technology: software for interactive analysis of
	consumer survey data (for marketing depts.), DOS and Unix, Alsys.

UK 	Univ. of Southampton, modeling of deep-sea ecosystem,
	IBM 3090, Alsys.

UK 	Westinghouse Signals, Ltd.: Railways signaling system,
	VAX-->68k, Alsys.

USA	AAI: Commercial fire-fighter simulator/trainer, Rational.

USA	Beech Aircraft: many flight-control subsystems for Beechjet 400A
	and Beech Starship I (business jets) (see Rockwell)

USA	Boeing: 747-400 subsystem components of cockpit displays,
	on-board maintenance systems, secondary flight controls

USA	Boneck Printing: job costing system, 40,000 lines, Janus/Ada

USA	CAE-Link: Space Station Verification and Training Facility/
	Shuttle Mission Simulator, Real-time, distributed simulators
	(using OO methodology, no less!).  Silicon Graphics/Verdix

USA	Coulter: medical electronics, including hematology equipment.

USA	Crane HydroAir: braking systems for aircraft, Alsys.

USA	Design Aids: commercial frame-by-frame videotape editing system,
	Janus/Ada

USA	Dimensional Media Systems: Doorway, hypertext "information
	manager,"  MS-DOS, Meridian

USA	Dowell-Schlumberger: oil exploration simulation software, DEC

USA 	General Electric/Weirton Steel: hot steel rolling mill,
	multiple MicroVax-en, DEC Ada

USA	General Electric: Satellite communications ground station (known
	as the Second TDRSS Ground Terminal), Rational.

USA 	Genesis Software, Inc.: complete bill paying system, Wang VS,
	Alsys; ported easily to VAX

USA 	HP: hardware CAD system for internal use in chip development.

USA	Honeywell: Airplane Information Management System (AIMS) for the
	Boeing 777, Rational.

USA 	Inviroplan: factory ignition monitoring system, Alsys.

USA	JEOL USA, Inc.: Delta - Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometer
	Control, Data Processing and Visualization, Irix(SGI UNIX),
	SGI/Ada & SGI/MP-Ada (Verdix 6.2f based).

USA 	LDS Hospital: medical decision support system, DOS, Alsys.

USA 	Lawrence Livermore National Lab (DOE): Nova fusion laser contol
	system (world's largest laser), DEC Ada, MOTIF, multiple
	VAXStations.

USA 	Lawrence Livermore National Lab: building security system:
	access control, intrusion detection, window-based monitoring
	and control, VAX/VMS.

USA 	MAN Truck and Bus Company: multi-state payroll system,
	Janus/Ada (1982!)

USA 	Motorola: cellular phone switch testing system, Alsys, TeleSoft.

USA	NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Cassini orbiter spacecraft to
	Saturn, Rational.

USA 	PC-based programmer for embedded medical products (company
	refuses to be identified).

USA 	Reuters: transaction processing for Chicago Mercantile Exchange,
	interfaces to commercial DBMS

USA 	Rockwell: Fokker F100 Multi-Function Display System, Irvine
	Compilers

USA 	Rockwell: Advanced Railroad Electronic System (real-time tracking
	and Global Positioning Satellite communications with trains)

USA 	Rockwell: Many system components for commercial aircraft control.

USA 	Rockwell: commercial Miniaturized Global Positioning Satellite
	Receiver (MGR).

USA 	Rollins Leasing (national leader in truck leasing and vehicle
	management): integrated fuel management system, Janus/Ada.

USA 	Shell Oil: geophysical seismic processing system (many different
	computers).

USA 	Smiths (formerly Lear-Sigler): large embedded flight program for
	Boeing-737 aircraft, XD-Ada.

USA 	Sundstrand: power supply ignition for Boeing-777, Alsys.

USA 	Trace Instruments: automatic test equipment for printed circuit
	boards.

USA 	Wells-Fargo Investment Advisors (WFNIA): real-time investment
	database system, DEC/VAX.

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