AdaCore Blog

An Insight Into the AdaCore Ecosystem

by Tobias Reiher –
Building a Virtual Mars Rover with SPARK and Rust

Building a Virtual Mars Rover with SPARK and Rust

We have taken our Ada Mars Rover demo, featuring a physical robot driven by formally verified SPARK software, to the next level by introducing a simulator that allows you to experience the Rover's capabilities virtually. This simulation, implemented in Rust, accurately models the Rover's movement in an obstacle-filled environment, all while being controlled by the original SPARK code. This project exemplifies the synergy between Ada and Rust, demonstrating how these technologies can be effectively combined to build reliable, safety-critical applications.

#SPARK    #Rust   

by Andrea Bristol –
AdaCore and Lynx Software Technologies Reaffirm Longstanding Partnership

AdaCore and Lynx Software Technologies Reaffirm Longstanding Partnership

AdaCore and Lynx Software Technologies have reaffirmed their longstanding technology partnership to support avionics and defense customers developing safety-critical applications with Ada. Both companies will showcase their software solutions at the Army Aviation Mission Solutions Summit (“QuadA”) conference and exposition in Nashville, Tennessee, May 14-16. AdaCore and Lynx solutions are used in hundreds of military and aerospace programs worldwide.

#DO-178   

by Quentin Ochem –
Let's play '7 differences in Ada'

Let's play '7 differences in Ada'

Over the past few years, we've been progressively developing new GNAT extensions for the Ada programming language, which you can follow and contribute to on the github RFC page. While the implementation is ramping up, we can already share a few aspects of the language that can be tested with recent versions of the GNAT Pro compiler, which will eventually find their way to the open-source version.Let's play a game. The code below is an - arguably over-engineered - version of a tic-tac-toe game. Can you find the 7 differences (or features) introduced by the Ada extensions? Note that some of these are only visible on one line, some have an impact across the entire application.If you want to compile this code, you will need both a GNAT Pro wavefront with the latest changes in, and the switch -gnatX0 that enables all experimental features

#tictactoe    #Ada   

by Johannes Kliemann –
CheriBSD: A Showcase for Hardware-Supported Security

CheriBSD: A Showcase for Hardware-Supported Security

Over the course of the last few years and as part of the 'Edge Avionics' project, funded by the Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO) of the UK Royal Air Force (UK RAF), AdaCore has been developing toolchain solutions for Capability Hardware Enhanced RISC Instructions (CHERI) microprocessor architectures. In addition, AdaCore evaluated security claims made by the CHERI community through the Digital Security by Design (DSbD) initiative. The goal was to inform Edge Avionics project partners about the level of security assurance offered by the Arm Morello microprocessor; a modified Arm Neoverse N1 supporting the Armv8-A architecture and conforming to the CHERI compartmentalization specification. The DSbD project is now in the final stages, the overarching goal of mass adoption of CHERI-architectures is now looked after by the CHERI Alliance.

#CHERI   

by Justin Squirek –
A new math library for Ada: Neo.SIMD

A new math library for Ada: Neo.SIMD

Developing a game engine often requires a highly optimized linear algebra library for tasks like physics, camera movement, and AI. While many languages already have mature options, Ada’s ecosystem lacks such solutions. To fill this gap, I created Neo.SIMD as part of the AdaDoom3 project. Neo.SIMD takes advantage of SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) instructions, which process multiple data points in parallel and can greatly improve performance for vector and matrix operations.

#Ada    #GameDev    #SIMD    #Assembly   

by Ben Brosgol –
Verifying FACE® Conformance for Ada Software

Verifying FACE® Conformance for Ada Software

The FACE® approach (Future Airborne Capability Environment®) is a joint government-industry initiative to reduce system life cycle costs for airborne software through the reuse of portable source code components. Sponsored by the US Department of Defense and currently open to the “Five Eyes” countries (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK and the US) the FACE approach is administered by The Open Group’s FACE Consortium and is realized through several technologies based on open standards.

#FACE   

by Olivier Henley –
Open-Source Ada: From Gateware to Application

Open-Source Ada: From Gateware to Application

The Neorv32 BIOS project demonstrates how Ada can serve as a powerful alternative to C in open-source embedded development. Using a fully open-source stack—including Neorv32 (a VHDL-based RISC-V softcore), the ULX3S FPGA board, and an open FPGA toolchain—this project showcases Ada’s suitability for system programming, from low-level hardware interactions to high-level software abstraction.

#Open Source    #RISC-V    #VHDL    #Neorv32    #ULX3S    #FPGA    #Lattice    #ECP5    #GHDL    #Yosys    #NextPnr    #Gateware    #Softcore    #GAP    #GNAT Academic Program    #BIOS    #Ada   

by Fabien Chouteau –
Advent of Ada/SPARK 2024 Results

Advent of Ada/SPARK 2024 Results

At the end of November, we called the Ada and SPARK programmers community to take on a challenge for a good cause. For each person completing one of the Advent of Code exercises using the Ada programming language, AdaCore would donate $10 to the Ada Developers Academy. And for those willing to go the extra mile, AdaCore would donate $20 if the solution is implemented in SPARK. We are now in January and it is time for the results!

#Ada