CFCSEIC News Briefs, W/E Oct. 17, 1997

CFCSEIC News Briefs, W/E Oct. 17, 1997

[CSEIC]

Center for Computer Systems Engineering News Briefs
Week Ending:  October 17, 1997

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CONTENTS:

DMS GETS MAIL GUARD, FIREWALL
ADTEST:  A TEST DATA GENERATION SUITE FOR ADA SOFTWARE SYSTEMS
PLANNING EFFICIENT SOFTWARE TESTS
ULTRASPARC-III MICROPROCESSOR PRODUCTION SET FOR 1998

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DMS GETS MAIL GUARD, FIREWALL
Topic:  DII

Trusted Information Systems, Inc., has completed work on a Defense 
Message System (DMS) version of its Gauntlet firewall.  This release, 
funded by the National Security Agency under a contract awarded last 
spring, is a Fortezza-enabled X.400 mail guard and firewall.  The 
contractor will augment the release with software upgrades for X.500 
directory services next year.

A DISA official said X.500 support is a requirement for DMS firewalls.

SOURCE:  Jackson, William, "DMS gets mail guard, firewall," Government 
Computer News, October 13, 1997, v 16, n 31, p. 40.  http://www.gcn.com
 
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ADTEST:  A TEST DATA GENERATION SUITE FOR ADA SOFTWARE SYSTEMS
Topic:  Ada, Software Engineering

A paper in the August issue of "IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering," 
examines the design of the software system, ADTEST, for generating test 
data for programs developed in Ada 83.  The key feature of this system 
is that the problem of test data generation is treated entirely as a 
numerical optimization problem and, as a consequence, this method does 
not suffer from difficulties commonly found in symbolic execution systems.

The system has been tested on large Ada programs (60,000 lines of code) 
and found to reduce the effort required to test programs as well as 
provide an increase in test coverage.

SOURCE:  Gallagher, M.J., & Narasimhan, V.L., "ADTEST: A Test Data 
Generation Suite for Ada Software Systems," IEEE Transactions on Software
Engineering, August 1997, v 23, n 8, pp. 473-484.  http://computer.org

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PLANNING EFFICIENT SOFTWARE TESTS
Topic:  Software Engineering

Software testing consumes 30%-70% of an organization's software 
development resources.  However, many faults remain undetected and are 
later found in the field.  To improve customer satisfaction and reduce 
development costs, it is imperative that software teams reduce testing 
costs, reduce product introduction delays, and send fewer faults to the 
field.  

The Robust Testing Method*, based on the special properties of orthogonal 
arrays, can achieve these goals by generating test cases that are more 
efficient and thorough in finding faults.  In many cases, the Robust 
Testing method has increased tester productivity by a factor of two or 
better.

SOURCE:  Phadke, Madhav, "Planning Efficient Software Tests," Crosstalk, 
October, 1997, v 10, n 10, pp. 11-15.  
http://www.stsc.hill.af.mil/Crosstalk/crostalk.html

*"Robust Testing Method" is a trademark of Phadke Associates, Inc.


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ULTRASPARC-III MICROPROCESSOR PRODUCTION SET FOR 1998
Topic: COE

Sun Microsystems has announced that it expects to begin sample production 
of its next-generation UltraSPARC-III microprocessor by the summer of 1998,
with the first systems emerging six to nine months later -- or sometime 
around early 1999. 

Gary Lauterbach, chief architect of the UltraSPARC-III, says the chip 
will have a clock speed in excess of 600 MHz (Megahertz) and, thanks to a 
design that is "focused on scalability," will be able to scale to over 
1,000 processors in a single system. He says the new .25 micron 
manufacturing process used in the UltraSPARC-III is a "major driver" 
behind the performance increases, calling them "a two to three times leap 
from the previous generation [the UltraSPARC-II]." 

SOURCE:  McMillan, Robert, SunWorld News, 
http://www.sun.com/sunworldonline/swol-10-1997/swol-10-ultra3.html

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