[Abstract] The complex aerospace systems of the future will challenge the capabilities of present-day software engineering, which is reaching cost and complexity limits of development technologies evolved in the first fifty years of computing. A new science for the next fifty years is required to transform software engineering into a computational discipline capable of fast and dependable software development. This paper describes verification and certification challenges for avionics software, in particular, the need to verify behavior in all circumstances of use. The emerging technology of function extraction (FX) for automated computation of software behavior is discussed as a new technology for avionics software certification. An FX demonstration system is employed to illustrate the role of behavior computation in the avionics certification process. I. Verification and Certification of Avionics Software The purpose of software verification in the certification context is to eliminate errors introduced during development, typically in compliance with industry or government guidance. In the case of software for commercial aviation, the FAA recognizes 1 the guidance provided by RTCA DO-178B 2, and aviation software developers use it as a compliance document. Among other things it advises the development team to make sure system requirements that were allocated to software have been developed into high-level software requirements, and that those have been

In the current state of practice, security properties of software systems are typically assessed through subjective, labor-intensive human evaluation. Moreover, much of the quantitative security analysis research to date is characterized by the development of approximate solutions and/or based on assumptions that severely constrain the operational utility of the results. In order to achieve a dramatic increase in maturing the discipline of software security engineering, a fundamentally different approach to analysis and evaluation of security attributes is required. The computational security attributes (CSA) approach to software security analysis provides a new approach for specification of security attributes in terms of data and transformation of data by programs. This paper provides an introduction to the CSA approach, provides behavioral requirements for several security attributes, and discusses possible application of the CSA approach to support analysis of security attributes during software development, acquisition, verification, and operation. 1.

Software testing can benefit from technologies that enable evolution toward increased engineering discipline. In current practice, software developers lack practical means to determine the full functional behavior of programs under development, and even the most thorough testing can provide only partial knowledge of behaviors. Thus, effective scientific principles and engineering technology for revealing software behavior should have a positive impact on software testing. This paper describes the emerging technology of function extraction (FX) for computing the behavior of programs to the maximum extent possible with mathematical precision. We explore how the use of FX technologies can transform methods for functional verification of software. An example illustrates the value of full behavior knowledge for complete and confident assessment of software function and fitness for use. We conclude by describing a transition strategy for introducing FX technology into the development and operation of software systems. ACM Categories: