Press Release

Gedae Leads CAPTOR RADAR Program to Realize Productivity Gains of 4.5 X

Gedae helps BAE Systems save time and money.
Edinburgh, Scotland. - June 12, 2003– ’ On January 15th, 2001 Gedae and BAE SYSTEMS announced an agreement allowing BAE to use Gedae for development of the Captor Radar software.Two-thirds of the way through production the Captor Radar Program has quantified the impact of Gedae on productivity and yielded improvements in the range of 4.1 to 4.8. This measurable improvement has been defined as the Gedae Productivity factor or GPF.

Productivity Factor

The GPF is derived from the productivity gained between Tranche1 and Tranche 2 signal processing software development. An effort has been made to factor out the cost of change to Tranche 1 during its development.

Background

The Tranche 1 Development Programme implemented the Captor signal processing functionality using Real-Time Structured Analysis and Structured Design (RTSA/SD) and the C programming language and ASIC microcode. The target platform was a bespoke processor comprising a number of processing subunits implemented in ASIC, some with embedded SPARC processing capability.

The Tranche 2 Development Programme is an exercise in obsolescence management. The software is developed in Gedae using the Tranche 1 algorithms with some elements of Tranche 1 legacy code being reused. The target platform is a custom muliple-G4 PowerPC architecture. Future technology upgrades will require only focused changes to the Gedae model.

Productivity Factor

In order to determine the GPF the average effort to develop the Air-to-Air radar mode at Tranche 1 was compared to that at Tranche 2. A comparative mapping of tasks carried out during development is shown in the table below:

Productivity 1 Unit
Real-Time Structure Analysis -RTSA
Stuctured Design
Code
Unit Test
Integration Test (~16%)
Acceptance Test (~16%)

For the purposes of determining the improvement in productivity brought about by the use of the Gedae tool the whole development lifecycle needs to be included in the calculation. Since data is not yet available for Tranche 2 integration with the target hardware read across was taken. It has been ascertained that an effective figure of 32% effort was required in Integration and Acceptance and so this has been accounted for in the preparation of the final GPF.

Conclusion

The current analysis determined Captor GPF between 4.1 and 4.8. Gedae, Inc. stated that while this is an impressive improvement over in productivity over the development of the Tranche 1, the integration and acceptance phase will only serve to increase that number. Integration and acceptance are strengths of Gedae.

About Gedae, Inc.

The mission of Gedae [‘jE dA] Inc. is to reliably deploy to military personnel the most advanced technology available, which is achieved by automating software development technology. Modern systems at times rely on implementing system complexity in software. Gedae simplifies the development complexity to ultimately enhance the quality of the software.

Gedae, Inc. delivers a software development environment for multithread applications with w with its multithread compiler and a language also known as “Gedae.” The environment surrounds these core components with a suite of supporting tools to define and implement the threads. Gedae recognizes the architecture of the target and crafts a complex application, using simple software components: highly optimized vector and interprocessor communication routines. This automation means that organizations can build their software early and explore various architectures using simulations or real hardware — never having to rewrite their software.

About BAE SYSTEMS Avionics

BAE SYSTEMS is a systems company, innovating for a safer world. BAE SYSTEMS employs nearly 100,000 people including Joint Ventures, and has annual sales of around £13 billion. The company offers a global capability in air, sea, land and space with a world-class prime contracting ability supported by a range of key skills.

BAE SYSTEMS designs, manufactures and supports military aircraft, surface ships, submarines, space systems, radar, avionics, communications, electronics, guided weapon systems and a range of other defence products. BAE SYSTEMS is dedicated to making the intelligent connections needed to deliver innovative solutions.

BAE SYSTEMS Avionics is the leading avionics company in Europe, and the UK’s foremost supplier of electronic systems for civil and military platforms in the air, at sea and on land. With its head office at Basildon in the UK, the Avionics organisation operates across 40 sites in four continents, with concentrations in Scotland, southern England and Australia.


Press Contacts

Jeremy Lundgren
Gedae, Inc.
(856) 231-4458
jeremy@gedae.com

BAE SYSTEMS Avionics
Patrick Browne
+44 131 343 4707
patrick.browne@baesystems.com