Re: Ada and Automotive Industry

["Stanley R. Allen" <s_allen@hso.link.com>]

ETHoierman wrote:
 
> I see a lot about Ada in the aircraft
> avionics world but I haven't seen
> much on cars/trucks.  Any suggested
> reading material, forums, etc?
> 

(I'm re-posting this note because it seems like
my ISP can't deliver my usenet posts very well...)

Russ Hersch compiles FAQ information on the embedded
processor real-time market, and posts a notice each
month to comp.realtime about the various processors,
languages, kernels, tools, and vendors in that area.
In the last FAQ I saw (10-1-96), he mentioned
the automobile industry when discussing the growth of
the embedded processor market, to quote: "The auto-
motive market is the most important single driving
force in the mocrocontroller market... several
microcontroller families were developed specifically
for automotive applications...".

From his overview, almost all of the languages used
are loosely typed (assmebler, C, FORTH).  Ada is
not mentioned, in spite of the success that the
avionics world has had with it.

The two domains have so much in common, that it's just
a shame that most of the automotive industry hasn't
heard (much) of Ada.  Both are building large real-
time distributed systems with high reliability &
safety requirements, with potentially long operations
and maintenance phases.  You would think that Tartan
(now TI) or DDC-I, or one of the other cross-development
Ada vendors would be able to make inroads in that 
environment.  Top-tier Ada vendors have the editors,
compilers, safety-certified kernels, debuggers, cross-
development toolsets, etc. that are needed for the
kind of development done by auto makers.

Ada almost single-handedly drove the state-of-the-art
in optimizing compiler technology in the 80's.  The
Ada83 market was very competitive, and some of the
DoD embedded processors were quite tiny; the best
minds in compiler optimization were hired and put
to the task -- as a result, Ada code generators
often equal or exceed C or even hand-coded assembly
(see http://www.ti.com/sc/docs/news/1994/94018.htm).
So, Ada is probably more than adequate to meet the
performance needs of the automobile industry.

As for the presumed prejudice against Ada, well...
I have personally worked with a number of programmers
that have come to Ada from a different background,
including hard-core C developers; almost invariably
they gain appreciation and respect for Ada after
working with it on real projects.  Prejudices start
to break down with more familiarity.  The Big Picture
is grasped.

Once you appreciate the problems that Ada was designed
to solve, you appreciate the solutions it provides.
And as the auto industry relies more and more on
embedded software, it should begin to look at Ada
and appreciate it more.

Stanley Allen
mailto:s_allen@hso.link.com