AdaCore Qualifies C Compiler for Alstom’s Safety-critical Railway Systems
C compiler in GNAT Pro Ada toolchain qualified for class T3 compliance with European safety standard CENELEC EN 50128.
In accordance with the requirements of railway software safety standard EN 50128:2011, AdaCore has extended the T3 qualification of its GNAT Pro Ada for PowerPC ELF toolchain to include that product’s C compiler. The qualification work was performed for Alstom, an international company specialising in safety-critical railway systems. It was validated by the Independent Safety Assessor CERTIFER. T3 qualification for the C compiler complements the earlier T3 qualification for the toolchain’s Ada compiler. T3 is the highest qualification level in EN 50128.
The qualification of the C compiler involved several activities:
- Running the SolidSands SuperTest C conformance test suite and the Free Software Foundation’s GCC testsuite.
- Analyzing the problem reports related to the specific version of the C compiler and correcting several issues that were identified as critical.
- Demonstrating correct integration of the C code with the main application written in Ada.
“Alstom and AdaCore enjoy a longstanding relationship, and as a supplier of qualified Ada tools we have supported Alstom on a variety of safety-critical railway programs in the past,” said Jamie Ayre, Commercial Director at AdaCore. “Since most systems these days are written in multiple languages, including C for a variety of functions, it made sense to qualify the C compiler in GNAT Pro at the same T3 classification as the Ada compiler. With both compilers now qualified under the most demanding tool qualification requirements of EN 50128, Alstom can have full confidence in the quality of the code that is generated, and in knowing that we will continue to provide top-tier support in response to any questions or issues.”
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