A personal view of SigAda

A personal view of SigAda

[Rod Chapman]

SIGAda 2002 - A brief report
----------------------------

Here are my thoughts on SIGAda 2002, held in Houston last
week.  Please note these are purely my personal thoughts
and impressions.  They only reflect a subset of the
papers that caught my particular attention.  There were a
couple of sessions and many tutorials that I missed altogether.
I leave it to others to fill in the blanks.

Overall
-------

Generally, a good SIGAda.  Much credit to all the SIGAda
organising committee and program committee for such
a well-run event.

Turn-out was OK - about the same as the previous years
at JHU and Minneapolis I think.  It addition to all the
"usual suspects", there were a few notable new faces such
as NASA, TRW, Northropp Grumman, and Lawrence Livermore
Labs.

Tutorials
---------

I attended Michael McEvilley's tutorial on the Common
Criteria.  Good stuff - the CC is an important standard
that the Ada community needs to be aware of.  The ComSec
world also appears to be a market where Ada could make a useful
contribution.

I also gave a full-day SPARK tutorial.  Very tiring!

Keynotes
--------

A particularly strong set of key-note speakers this year.

The keynote from Robert Carey of Livermore Labs was amazing - they
are building a thing called the "National Ignition Facility" (NIF),
which is basically one of the world's biggest lasers.  This is one of the
last great "big physics" experiments left in the world.  It will
be used to generate small nuclear fusion experiments and so on.

Check out www.llnl.gov/nif

Some metrics:

 Peak power output: 500 Terawatts
 Pulse energy: 1.8 Megajoules
 Shot time: 3 - 20 ns
 Laser Amplicification gain: 3 million billion (!!!)
 
The control system is a large distributed network of 
machines - mostly off-the-shelf PCs, networking kit and
embedded processors with some custom-built hardware.  They expect
it will be about a million lines of Ada and Java when finished.
Most of the GUIs are Java, with the main control system being Ada.

Oh, and when the shot fires, the whole thing is supposed
to be synchronised to <20 _pico_seconds!  Now that's what I call
hard real-time!


Robert Dewar spoke about Open Source, Free Software, development processes
(i.e. cathedral vs bazaar) and its effect on software reliability
and security.  Robert made the important point that "Free" or
"Open Source" licensing and "Open" development processes have
absolutely nothing to do with one another!  Lively and topical as usual.


The keynote from Charles McKay was very good.  Basically, he
spoke passionately and strongly in favour of remembering
Ada's "roots" (i.e. mission and safety-critical systems) in
the run up to the Ada0Y revision process.


Michael McEvilley did a good talk about the Common
Criteria, security stuff, and why the Ada community has something
to offer in the ComSec world (i.e. we know how to build really
reliable software!)


Papers
------

Some good stuff.  Some stuff I missed.  Usual stuff from
the vendors.  Two highlights for me were:

Richard Conn talked about the development processes used on
the Lockheed Martin C130J software systems.  Their development
process is now very mature (they have a CMM Level 4) combining
all sorts of best practices.  The metrics presented by Richard
suggest that the software development process is now one of
least error-prone activities in the aircraft's development.

VDot Santhanam from Boeing Wichita presented their "ZBra"
Ada subset and compiler.  This is an Ada subset, compiler
and virtual-machine that is designed to be qualifiable as
a development tool to the standards required by DO-178B Level A.
This is a big breakthrough - a level A qualified compiler
has never been attempted before to the best of my knowledge, so
this is a significant announcement.


Next Year
---------

San Diego!  Excellent - let's hope the weather is better - well..
couldn't be much worse... :-)

That's pretty much it...like I said, I hope someone else
can fill in for the bits I missed...

 - Rod

Re: A personal view of SigAda

[Marin David Condic]

Thanks for the report. What was attendance like? I can remember being at
some of these gigs where there were maybe 1500 or so people. After the
dropping of The Mandate, it looked like more in the neighborhood of 400 or
so - a lot less corporate support to go to the conferences, I guess. I know
that personally I can't get the corporate sponsorship these days to go and
footing the bill onesself makes for a pretty expensive vacation. Maybe it
would help to look into technology to see if there is a way to have "Virtual
Conventions"?

MDC
--
======================================================================
Marin David Condic
I work for: http://www.belcan.com/
My project is: http://www.jast.mil/

Send Replies To: m c o n d i c @ a c m . o r g

    "I'd trade it all for just a little more"
        --  Charles Montgomery Burns, [4F10]
======================================================================

Rod Chapman <rod.chapman@praxis-cs.co.uk> wrote in message
news:cf2c6063.0212190356.36c09@posting.google.com...
> SIGAda 2002 - A brief report
> ----------------------------

Re: A personal view of SigAda

[Vinzent Hoefler]

rod.chapman@praxis-cs.co.uk (Rod Chapman) wrote:

Well, it was my first SIGAda and the reason I was there, were simply
just private interests... but I'll try to comment a little bit.

> Generally, a good SIGAda.  Much credit to all the SIGAda
> organising committee and program committee for such
> a well-run event.

Yes, this was my impression, too.

> I also gave a full-day SPARK tutorial.  Very tiring!

Oh, I liked it. You went through damn fast (it *is* a large topic for
one day), but I think I got most of the things... :)

> The keynote from Robert Carey of Livermore Labs was amazing - they
> are building a thing called the "National Ignition Facility" (NIF),
> which is basically one of the world's biggest lasers.

Oh yes, the figures looked very impressive...

> Oh, and when the shot fires, the whole thing is supposed
> to be synchronised to <20 _pico_seconds!  Now that's what I call
> hard real-time!

I still wonder how they will achieve that, especially on a relatively
large distributed system like this. I mean it basically requires more
accuracy than the CPU clock alone has...

> The keynote from Charles McKay was very good.

Uuhm, yes. It was exciting.

> Michael McEvilley did a good talk about the Common
> Criteria, security stuff, and why the Ada community has something
> to offer in the ComSec world (i.e. we know how to build really
> reliable software!)

Yes, I have the feeling that especially more and more security people
get interested into Ada (if they aren't already, of course). Not just
from this keynote, also by my own experience.

> Papers
> ------
> 
> Some good stuff.  Some stuff I missed.  Usual stuff from
> the vendors.  Two highlights for me were:

Well, the paper about the Generic Genetic Algorithm was interesting,
too. More in terms of teaching Software Engineering at University and
experience of the students with Ada than in the usual terms of the
mission- and safety critical area.

All in all, I enjoyed the SIGAda2002 conference. Lots of interesting
people. :)

Ok... I guess there could be a lot more to say, but I don't want to
bother the people in c.l.a. with my very personal view(s) too much.


Vinzent.

Re: A personal view of SigAda

[John Woodruff]

"Marin David Condic" <mcondic.auntie.spam@acm.org> wrote in message news:<atsfeq$hii$1@slb2.atl.mindspring.net>...
> Thanks for the report. What was attendance like? I can remember being at
> some of these gigs where there were maybe 1500 or so people. 


Quite a bit smaller these days!

SigAda Chair Currie Colket reports that there are 560 members in the
SigAda interest group.  Attendance at the conference was just under
100. 

The group is planning another conference for 2003 in San Diego (in
October or November).

John

Re: A personal view of SigAda

[Ted Dennison]

Vinzent Hoefler wrote:
> rod.chapman@praxis-cs.co.uk (Rod Chapman) wrote:
>>Michael McEvilley did a good talk about the Common
>>Criteria, security stuff, and why the Ada community has something
>>to offer in the ComSec world (i.e. we know how to build really
>>reliable software!)
> 
> 
> Yes, I have the feeling that especially more and more security people
> get interested into Ada (if they aren't already, of course). Not just
> from this keynote, also by my own experience.

I've done COMSEC Ada work before. I know the LMD/KP project was entirely 
Ada. I believe that's a piece of equipment that nearly every COMSEC user 
is aware of.

Re: A personal view of SigAda

[Marin David Condic]

Sounds disappointing. As a member, I'd like to see SIGAda find a healthier
direction. Some of that is dependent on Ada becoming a healthier language.
Some of it may have to come from SIGAda finding a way to be more relevant to
the community & computing in general. Don't know what the answer is, but I
do know that without corporate support, its hard for even interested members
to do much for the SIG, much less draw in new members. No way to get the
corporate support unless the corporations think they've got something to
gain by supporting it. No way to do that unless corporations are expanding
their use of Ada.

MDC
--
======================================================================
Marin David Condic
I work for: http://www.belcan.com/
My project is: http://www.jast.mil/

Send Replies To: m c o n d i c @ a c m . o r g

    "I'd trade it all for just a little more"
        --  Charles Montgomery Burns, [4F10]
======================================================================

John Woodruff <jpwoodruff@irisinternet.net> wrote in message
news:34defe4d.0212201556.50f6f1b0@posting.google.com...
>
> Quite a bit smaller these days!
>
> SigAda Chair Currie Colket reports that there are 560 members in the
> SigAda interest group.  Attendance at the conference was just under
> 100.
>
> The group is planning another conference for 2003 in San Diego (in
> October or November).
>
> John

Re: A personal view of SigAda

[John Woodruff]

JeLlyFish.software@gmx.net (Vinzent Hoefler) wrote in message news:<36f61440.0212201345.74a04ba3@posting.google.com>...

> > The keynote from Robert Carey of Livermore Labs was amazing - they
> > are building a thing called the "National Ignition Facility" (NIF),
> > which is basically one of the world's biggest lasers.
> 
> Oh yes, the figures looked very impressive...
> 
> > Oh, and when the shot fires, the whole thing is supposed
> > to be synchronised to <20 _pico_seconds!  Now that's what I call
> > hard real-time!
> 
> I still wonder how they will achieve that, especially on a relatively
> large distributed system like this. I mean it basically requires more
> accuracy than the CPU clock alone has...

Here's a little clarification about the NIF's 20 picosecond timing
precision:

Of course, there is no computing taking place during the propagation
of the laser pulse (which has duration 25 nanoseconds).  The
Integrated Computer Control System that Bob described sets up the
experiment and then turns over control to a hardware timing system and
that hardware distributes triggers to the 1500 or so instruments that
refine and observe the pulse.

"The Integrated Timing System uses fiber-optic communications and
network technologies to distribute a time-encoded data stream
throughout the facility; then generates independently controlled,
real-time trigger pulses close to the device to be triggered."

A report "The NIF Integrated Timing System - Design and Performance"
by Dick Lerche et al was delivered at the ICALEPCS 2001 conference and
is available at http://www.slac.stanford.edu/econf/C011127/TUAP069.shtml.

Re: A personal view of SigAda

[Wes Groleau]

> Well, the paper about the Generic Genetic Algorithm was interesting,
> too. More in terms of teaching Software Engineering at University and
> experience of the students with Ada than in the usual terms of the
> mission- and safety critical area.

Now that one interests me.  I suppose I have to stop
procrastinating my joining of SIGAda in order to see it?

Re: A personal view of SigAda

[Hyman Rosen]

Wes Groleau wrote:
> Now that one interests me.  I suppose I have to stop
> procrastinating my joining of SIGAda in order to see it?

If you already belong to the ACM, joining SIGADA is pretty
cheap. Ada Letters is a pretty good publication, if a little
thin most of the time, and you get the occasional proceedings.

I've been a member for many years.