PR Newswire
Jan 11, 2006 08:01 ET

Wind River Releases Comprehensive Device Software Platform for ARINC 653 Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) Applications

VxWorks 653 v2.1 Reduces Risk and Time-to-Flight for Aerospace and Defense Customers

ALAMEDA, Calif., Jan. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Wind River Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:WIND) , the global leader in Device Software Optimization (DSO), today announced the release of Wind River(R) VxWorks 653 v2.1, its enhanced ARINC 653 IMA platform for safety-critical systems. Delivering new enhanced safety and architecture features, Wind River's ARINC 653 device software platform now enables A&D device manufacturers to develop and maintain safety-critical, standards-based, integrated modular applications faster and more reliably.

"A&D systems are continuing a rapid shift towards standards-based operations and, at the same time, manufacturers are being asked to deliver increasingly complex products, with higher quality, on budget and on schedule," said John Fanelli, vice president of product management and planning at Wind River. "Customers need proven solutions that provide for ease of certification and the security to ensure their devices are always interoperable, reliable and reusable. With approximately 40,000 developers using Wind River's platforms, our new enhancements are continued proof of our leadership in delivering a fast, easy, standards-based development platform for commercial and military devices, while also reducing costs."

Low-Risk, Cost-Effective DO-178B Certification for Partitioned Systems

As A&D devices increasingly connect into larger systems, the certification process, while time consuming and often extremely costly, is crucial to ensuring that device software applications comply with industry safety standards. Standard Application Programmable Interfaces (APIs) also provide application portability, and code re-use, as well as insurance that today's systems will run well into tomorrow -- an important consideration as A&D systems' lifecycles are often greater than 20 years. To address this challenge, Wind River now provides the following features and functionality:

-- A Complete, Eclipse-Based Development Environment for ARINC 653:
Wind River's Platform for Safety Critical (PSC) for ARINC 653 is now
fully integrated into the Workbench development environment, enabling
the use of the industry-standard Eclipse workspace for ARINC 653
software development and deployment.

-- Updated DO-178B Level A Certification Artifacts:
Wind River A&D product offerings now include updated versions of all
required documentation to support DO-178B Level A, B, C, and D
certification of operating systems. Certification evidence is delivered
as a complete package on DVD in an advanced hyperlinked format for easy
navigation and traceability, easing the time and expense required by
certification services. This robust packaging of certification
artifacts can also be used as a basis for IEC 61508 and FDA 510 (k)
device certifications serving all SIL and medical device class levels.

-- DO-178B Qualified Tools:
Wind River is announcing new DO-178B qualified monitoring tools to
collect required DO-178B system and application performance data with
near-zero intrusion. These monitoring tools support debug and
test-for-credit in the certification environment and can be utilized in
deployed systems to analyze systems on the ground. These tools monitor
key system parameters like CPU time, memory usage, and ARINC ports. The
optimized and automatic data collection provided via these tools helps
ease the time-intensive certification process especially in complex
MMU-partitioned application environments.

-- XML Configuration Tool for Device Certification for IMA:
A new, powerful XML-based system for expressing ARINC 653 configuration
data provides a sharp reduction in the certification and configuration
costs of ARINC 653 systems. This DO-178B qualified development tool
verifies correct compilation of ARINC 653 configuration data, thereby
eliminating substantial rework and test for system updates and changes.
In addition, this tool uniquely supports the separation of the roles of
Platform Provider, System Integrator, and Application Developer, as
required by the DO-297 IMA Development Guidance and Certification
Issues document. This separation permits development teams from
different subcontractors working on different IMA applications to
easily make asynchronous deliveries to the system integrator, without
triggering massive re-testing of the entire system.

"This DO-178B qualified development tool supports the deployment and maintenance of complex ARINC 653 systems. It improves confidence in the integrated system, thereby reducing time-to-flight," states George Romanski, chief executive officer of Verocel. "By controlling and isolating changes to configuration records, system verification and re-verification costs are substantially reduced."

Availability

Wind River VxWorks 653 v2.1 is available to customers today. To learn more about Wind River A&D technologies, please visit www.windriver.com.

About Wind River

Wind River is the global leader in device software optimization (DSO). Wind River enables companies to develop and run device software faster, better, at lower cost and more reliably. Wind River platforms are pre-integrated, fully standardized enterprise-wide development solutions. They reduce effort, cost and risk and optimize quality and reliability at all phases of the device software development process from concept to deployed product.

Founded in 1981, Wind River is headquartered in Alameda, California, with operations worldwide. To learn more, visit Wind River at http://www.windriver.com/ or call 1-800-872-4977.

Forward-Looking Safe Harbor Statement

Certain statements in this press release including, but not limited to, the anticipated release and benefits of new products, services and reference designs by Wind River and the ability of new enhanced safety of architecture features to the ARINC 653 to provide beneficial results to A&D device manufacturers, are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause results to be materially different than expectations. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, delays in the development or integration of technologies, rapid technological or business changes that adversely affect customer demand or partner strategies, and other risks detailed from time to time in the Wind River reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission including its Form 10-K for the year ended January 31, 2005. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. Wind River disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

NOTE: The Wind River logo is a trademark of Wind River Systems, Inc., and Wind River and VxWorks are registered trademarks of Wind River Systems, Inc. Other marks used herein are the property of the respective owners.

Web site: http://www.windriver.com/