An open system development initiative

With the Fiscal Year 1997 software maintenance release, the AV-8B aircraft mission computer and stores management computer hardware and software reached its operational limit. To maintain the war-fighting readiness of the aircraft, this limitation had to be addressed. The selected approach is to replace the existing AYK-14 systems with VME-based PowerPC single board computers. The F/A-18 E/F aircraft is planning an upgrade of a similar nature. This hardware architecture change requires the conversion of the existing AYK-14 assembly language operational flight program (OFF) to a high order language (HOL). To facilitate the transition, the open system development initiative (OSDI) project was established. The following discussion will identify the open systems tools and methods employed and the resulting architectural and design patterns in the prototype application. It will also discuss some of the specific lessons learned with the tools, methods and project.