Recent article in UniNews

Recent article in UniNews

[David Tannen]

I just read an interesting article in the latest edition of UniNews.
UniNews is a biweekly newsletter put out by UniForum.  As you can
guess this is not an organization that usually even knows how to 
spell Ada.  Here are some excerpts:
	"Unix Dominates New Air Traffic Control Systems"

	... "The French company Thomson-CSF has sold more than 200 
air traffic control centers to 140 countries, including a contract 
for seven new control centers with Mexico, announced in March, and 
a turnkey system to be installed at the new King Fahd International
Airport near Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, announced in January." ...

	"Other key open systems elements of Thomson's Eurocat system
are the X Window System for graphic interface, TCP/IP protocal for
interprocessor communication through redundant local area networks,
and the Ada language for application software.  Ada, which was
developed as a standard language for U.S. defense systems, is making
inroads into non-defensive areas because of its inherent modularity
and reusability, as well as its government backing."
	"Some 5,000 controller positions have been installed by 
Thomson in countries including Demark, Singapore, Greece, Russia,
the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Saudia Arabia and Mexico."...

	"FAA calls its project the Advanced Automation Systems (AAS).
Although AAS will use custom software - some three million lines of
Ada code contributed by IBM and several subcontractors, IBM 
spokesperson Bill Prater insists the system will be 'as open as we 
can be.'  Products and services from 60 subcontractors are going
into the system.  For example, AAS employs an Ada compiler supplied
by The Alsys Group, San Diego, a subsidiary of Thomson-CSF." ....



Please note that UniForum is not a place where Ada shows up that
often (if at all) in an article.  I found this interesting and
hope the rest of you will also.

Thanks
David Tannen
tannend@source.asset.com
tannen@tigger.geg.mot.com