Ada and safety-critical railroad systems?

Ada and safety-critical railroad systems?

[Patrick Donohoe]

Folks -

The company I'm working for produces safety critical systems for railroad
applications, both cab and wayside.  They are transitioning from an 8 bit 
6809 / assembly language technology to a 32 bit MC68332 / OOD/ C++ 
technology. They have used Ada once in the past.  It was sold to them as 
the cure all for all their woes.  Well, it wasn't, and they have a rather 
nasty taste in their mouths for it.  In any event, I'm trying to make the 
case that Ada/Ada95 is an excellent choice 
for future consideration, both from a safety-critical point of view and 
also a business (primarily European) point of view.

These systems must be safety-critical and deterministic in nature.  
Unfortunately, I've little background in this area, and need some help.

1)  I know that Ada is used much more in Europe for commercial applications 
than in the United States.  Does anyone know of any Ada success stories in 
the safety critical train control domain in Europe ??  I know of only one, 
the French project called "Astree".  SEIC in Falls Church VA has some 
information about it, but only at a high level.

2)  Does anyone know of publications, papes, etc that deal with the issue 
of safety critical /deterministic software utilizing a high order language 
(preferably Ada) and utilizing only *one* processor ??

3) Finally, does anyone know of any trade-off studies etc that contrast C++ 
and Ada/Ada95 for safety critical applications ??

Please send responses to my email address MSBell@switch.com, not the 
senders !!

My company currently does not provide full Usenet services, so I don't have 
reliable access to newsgroups.


Thank you

Mark S. Bell                                MSBell@switch.com
Senior Software Engineer                    (412) 688-2822
Union Switch & Signal                       (412) 688-2398 (fax)
1000 Technology Dr.
Pittsburgh, PA.,   15219-3120
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Patrick Donohoe,  Software Engineering Institute,    pd@sei.cmu.edu
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213.    (412) 268-7616