Praxis and AdaCore Announce Strategic Partnership

Product integration takes the SPARK language and toolset to the next level

BOSTON, October 28, 2008 - Embedded Systems Conference - Praxis, international specialist in critical systems engineering, and AdaCore, provider of the highest quality Ada tools and support, have announced the formation of a long-term partnership with the intent of taking the SPARK language and toolset to a new level in technical capability, marketing and sales. This follows the recent release to the Open Source community of the Tokeneer project by the US National Security Agency (NSA). The Tokeneer project was developed by Praxis for the NSA using the Correctness by Construction methodology, the SPARK Ada language and toolset, and the GNAT Pro Ada development environment from AdaCore.

Praxis’ Correctness by Construction methodology is a combination of mature software engineering techniques, leading-edge tools, and innovative approaches that help bring higher productivity, lower defect rates, and lower support costs for high assurance software. Indeed, Praxis is unusual in offering warranties on the correctness of their delivered software. Correctness by Construction is based on a number of principles, such as expecting requirements to change, eliminating errors before testing, developing incrementally, and writing software that is easy to verify. The methodology has been successfully employed on a number of delivered high-security and safety-critical systems.

AdaCore has a long history in supplying solutions for the avionics safety-critical market with its GNAT Pro High-Integrity Edition for DO-178B. Praxis, the developer of the Ada-based SPARK language and its supporting toolset, has expertise and intensive experience in both the safety-critical and high-security arenas.

“I am convinced there are significant technical and market opportunities for SPARK, and the partnership with AdaCore will enable these opportunities to be realized much faster,” said Keith Williams, Praxis Managing Director. “We share the same technical vision and have the same passion for product support. This is good news for our clients.”

“The new AdaCore-Praxis partnership gives our clients wider access to SPARK worldwide, improved support service, and access to a new high-integrity toolset, SPARK Pro, to be added to AdaCore’s offering during the first half of 2009,” added Sylvain Haman, Praxis International Development Director.

“AdaCore has worked with Praxis for several years, and we appreciate how their Correctness by Construction methodology and the SPARK language and toolset have advanced the state of the practice in the high-security and safety-critical domains,” said Robert Dewar, President and CEO of AdaCore. “Many of our customers are interested in using SPARK with GNAT Pro, and this new partnership will provide them with an effective and well-integrated solution that can address requirements ranging from MILS architectures to DO-178B Level A.”

About Praxis
Praxis is a systems engineering company specializing in safety and mission critical applications. Praxis leads the world in specific areas of advanced systems engineering, such as ultra low defect software engineering, safety engineering for complex or novel systems, and tools/methods for systems engineering. Praxis offers clients a range of services including turn-key systems development, consultancy, training and R&D. Key market sectors are Aerospace, Defence, Air Traffic Management, Railways and Nuclear. The company operates internationally with active projects in the US, Asia and Europe. The UK Headquarters are in Bath with offices also in London, Loughborough, and Paris. It is wholly owned by Altran Technologies, which is a global leader in innovation engineering and employs 17,500 engineers across the world. www.praxis-his.com

About AdaCore
Founded in 1994, AdaCore is the leading provider of commercial software solutions for Ada, a state-of-the-art programming language designed for large, long-lived applications where safety, security, and reliability are critical. AdaCore's flagship product is the GNAT Pro development environment, which comes with expert on-line support and is available on more platforms than any other Ada technology. AdaCore has an extensive world-wide customer base; see http://www.adacore.com/home/company/customers/ for further information.

Ada and GNAT Pro see a growing usage in high-integrity and safety-certified applications, including commercial aircraft avionics, military systems, air traffic management/control, railroad systems, and medical devices, and in security-sensitive domains such as financial services.

AdaCore has North American headquarters in New York and European headquarters in Paris. www.adacore.com

Press Contact
press@adacore.com
leena.chauhan@praxis-his.com