Ottawa, January 2010 - Edgewater Computer Systems, Inc (ECSI), has been awarded a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) to provide developers of mission critical real‐time software applications with a pragmatic, proof based development environment for software components by combining ECSI’s RTEdge™ real‐time SW modeling platform and the Promela/SPIN tools framework.

ECSI will be modeling a subset of new language constructs for expressing state based and temporal‐based behavioral assumptions within RTEdge™ components and application implementations which will be verified by translation and integration with the established Promela/SPIN model checker. 

The concept of integration of Modeling and Model Checking technologies under the single framework has been the subject of several research works. There are still many open questions in order to fully exploit the power of models, integrate these models with automatic formal analysis and verification techniques and, ultimately, generate the full software from such models. This work focuses on extension of ECSI proof based development environment for real‐time embedded safety critical distributed applications through:

• incorporation of mapping algorithm, developed by Edgewater for consistent translation of user model information into formalism used by Model Checker
• incorporation of a Model Checker and creation of trace backs from findings of Model Checker to elements of initial user model
• enhancement of utilized modelling notation with assertion language, which allows expression of system properties/constraints in precise and concise manner.

RTEdge is a new breed of development tool, pioneering a proof based engineering approach to the Model Driven Development of safety critical real time software applications.

“Edgewater is pleased to be working with the European Space Agency (ESA)” according to Mr. Duane Anderson, President, ECSI. “Formally validating RTEdge and its ability to guarantee meeting real‐time constraints with an established model checker is an important step in redefining how mission and safety critical systems should be developed in the future”.

About ESA
The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. For more information, please visit www.esa.int

About ECSI
Edgewater Computer Systems, Inc. is a privately‐held provider of advanced computer and communications technology products for enterprise, military and industrial computing and networking applications.  Founded in 1988, ECSI has developed an extensive background in real‐time, high‐performance software and multiprocessor systems. For more information, please visit www.edgewater.ca