AdaCore Blog

An Insight Into the AdaCore Ecosystem

by Kyriakos Georgiou
AdaCore for SCHEME — Safety-Critical Harsh Environment Micro-processing Evolution

AdaCore for SCHEME — Safety-Critical Harsh Environment Micro-processing Evolution

AdaCore is excited to announce its participation in the SCHEME (Safety-Critical Harsh Environment Micro-processing Evolution) research project. Within SCHEME, Rolls-Royce has assembled a world-class consortium of UK industry and academia to deliver the next generation of high-integrity processing platforms for use in aerospace and other harsh environments.

#project    #research    #UK   

by Jose Ruiz
Security Considerations in Light Launcher Software

Security Considerations in Light Launcher Software

When Latitude began creating their small satellite launcher, Zephyr, they recognized the importance of selecting the correct programming language and development tools to support their efforts. They chose to work with high-integrity software experts AdaCore.Latitude, which closed a Series B funding round in January 2024, is currently preparing for Zephyr's first flight, which will occur in late 2025.In this article, Jose Ruiz, a Product Manager at AdaCore, explores two essential factors to consider when selecting secure software for your space industry projects: memory-safe languages and formal verification.

#Latitude   

by Michael Frank
Creating Your Own Ada/SPARK Coding Standard

Creating Your Own Ada/SPARK Coding Standard

Many of our customers ask if we have a "Coding Standard" that we can provide for writing code in Ada or SPARK. The answer has typically been: "We provide GNATcheck, which you can use to create your own." While this provides a lot of flexibility and control to the end user, sometimes a developer just wants to get things up and running as quickly as possible, and a generic coding standard is all that's needed. That's why AdaCore decided to help by creating a baseline coding standard that you can use as-is, or modify to fit your needs.

#Ada    #SPARK   

International Women’s Day: My Career Journey

International Women’s Day: My Career Journey

Every 8th March, International Women’s Day is celebrated around the world - it’s a great opportunity to highlight women’s talents, their achievements, and what makes them great at what they do.This year’s theme is #InspireInclusion. At AdaCore, this got us thinking about what our team values the most and how we strive to create a sense of belonging and community, no matter who our people are, their level of seniority, or where they’re based.Viviane Garese and Sofia Casale reveal more about their career journeys, their accomplishments in Software Engineering and Sales, and how AdaCore’s core value of collaboration helps to inspire inclusion at work every day.

#International Women’s Day   

by Fabien Chouteau
BACK TO THE BUILDING BLOCKS: AdaCore’s Contributions to Secure and Measurable Software

BACK TO THE BUILDING BLOCKS: AdaCore’s Contributions to Secure and Measurable Software

The focus on enhancing cybersecurity through various technological approaches and methodologies, as detailed in the White House Office of the National Cyber Director’s (ONCD) document titled “Back to the Building Blocks: A Path Toward Secure and Measurable Software" underscores a pivotal shift in how organizations, especially those at the helm of technological innovation, must adapt and respond to the ever-evolving landscape of cyber threats. This document provides an overview of some strategies and technologies that are critical in bolstering cybersecurity defenses.

#Cybersecurity    #memory safety    #Formal Verification   

by Maxim Reznik
Enhancing Ada Embedded Development: The Power of Real-Time Logging with RTT

Enhancing Ada Embedded Development: The Power of Real-Time Logging with RTT

Efficient embedded development in Ada relies on powerful tools. Real-time logging plays a pivotal role, enabling live monitoring and analysis. Unlike traditional methods, SEGGER's Real-Time Transfer (RTT) method offers hardware-independent real-time logging with low latency.This article explores RTT's simplicity: storing protocol data in a ring buffer on the target device, read by the debugger without halting program execution. The provided Ada code showcases RTT's implementation, from buffer types to control blocks.Integration with development environments is seamless, as seen with the Cortex Debug extension for VS Code. The extension supports RTT, providing features like textual and graphical display of RTT stream data.In summary, SEGGER's RTT method is a powerful, hardware-independent solution for real-time logging in Ada development. Its efficiency and flexibility make it indispensable for debugging, error detection, and security in embedded systems. Explore the GitHub repository for a hands-on experience with RTT in Ada embedded development.

#Embedded    #DIY    #vscode   

GNAT Static Analysis Suite: A Vision for Static Analysis in Ada

GNAT Static Analysis Suite: A Vision for Static Analysis in Ada

You may have noticed that over the past two years, we have made significant updates to our CodePeer product - the most visible change being the renaming of the product itself, now branded as “GNAT Static Analysis Suite”. For those who are already using the product and are looking to use the new version, it may be a good time to step back and share our vision, at AdaCore, for static analysis.

#Static Analysis    #GNATSAS    #CodePeer    #GNATcheck   

by Fabien Chouteau
Ada/SPARK Crate Of The Year 2023 Winners Announced!

Ada/SPARK Crate Of The Year 2023 Winners Announced!

In 2023 we announced the third edition of the Ada/SPARK Crate Of The Year Awards. We see the Alire source package manager as a game changer for Ada/SPARK, so we want to use the Crate of the Year awards to honor the people contributing to the ecosystem. This edition was different from the previous ones: we decided to depart from a submissions-based approach and instead consider all crates available in the Alire ecosystem. Today we are pleased to announce the results.

#Alire    #awards    #package manager    #SPARK    #Embedded   

by Ben Brosgol
Memory Safety in Rust

Memory Safety in Rust

Informally, memory safety in a program means that each data access is well behaved; i.e., is consistent with the item’s data type, does not impinge on any storage locations beyond the data value’s boundaries, and, if the program is multithreaded, does not produce an inconsistent or corrupted value. Memory safety violations result in undefined behavior, which is a Bad Thing: instances like the notorious “buffer overrun” can turn an otherwise safe and secure program into a ticking virtual time bomb. Some of the most eventful malware attacks in recent years are due to memory safety violations, and the topic has moved from techno-geek subreddits into mainstream discourse. Anyone developing or acquiring software, especially for applications with high assurance requirements, needs to pay attention.

#Rust    #memory safety   

by Fabien Chouteau
AdaCore Enhances GCC Security with Innovative Features

AdaCore Enhances GCC Security with Innovative Features

In a significant stride towards bolstering the security of the open-source ecosystem, AdaCore has recently contributed a set of security hardening features to the GCC project (GNU Compiler Collection). These features, designed to fortify the software produced by GCC against various cyber threats, highlight our commitment to advancing the field of secure programming and our 30+ years of contributing to the open-source software development ecosystem.