Greetings! This is the last PUG Newsletter in this millenium! As such, we will endeavor to keep it brief. TYX continues to build on the innovations as reported in the middle of the year. We report progress segment by segment.

TYX has completed deliveries on these major programs to date this year:

• RTCASS for the US NAVY, Lockheed Martin, and INDRA DTD Consortia.
• IFTE (CEE) for Northrop Grumman.
• TETS for USMC via Mantech Test Systems. Recently TYX delivered a large number of PAWS systems for the TETS program and are expecting to make further on-going deliveries to meet the needs of our customer.

Recently, Teradyne was selected for this important program. We at TYX wish to congratulate Teradyne and look forward to working with them on this program. With over 1,000 aircraft slated for production in the coming years, this is indeed a major program.

TYX continues to modernize the various platforms in use at the Warner Robins Gyro Test Area. Our subsidiary, Access Research Corporation, are involved through the San Antonio Engineering office in the modernization of an additional tester as well.

It has come to our attention recently that one of the managers of the Gyro Shop has received an award for Exemplary Civilian Service. We would like to add our Congratulations to Ms. Jennifer L. Jackson.

We have delivered the modified PAWS version to support this tester to our subsidiary, Access Research Corporation in San Antonio. This is an old MATE implementation with extensions for navigation and guidance. The CPU is a Harris Flexmate that operates near 1 Mhz and the new CPU is a Pentium III operating at 450 Mhz. Initial tests show a 50% improvement in CAL TPS execution time and a 44% improvement in OFAI TPS execution time. There are 16 TPS that will be saved that are worth more than $10M in development funds. Phase I will be complete in the first quarter of 2000.

Our ARC subsidiary is involved in a program to modernize some of the DATSA instrumentation and the attendant software interfaces.

On this upgrade program TYX is supplying the PAWS software suite and assisting in the integration of the Hardware to the PAWS system; i.e. the development of Instrument drivers. The TYX Engineering Services Team is hard at work and on schedule for this major program.

That pretty much covers the action on the majority of the family of DoD Testers in the good ol’ USA. We refer the reader to the section on R&D efforts to learn about other exciting developments.

On the European front, the EFA GPATE award has been made to INDRA DTD Spain, who have recently finished negotiating their contract. We expect to bring you further news about this program early next year. There are a number of re-host efforts underway in Europe:

• Replacement of obsolete ATEs; this program covers Tank testers, and involves a lot of legacy TPS some of which are written in HP BASIC! Our German Distributor, SEKAS GmbH is heavily involved in this program.
• Tornado mid-life update; this program is alive and kicking and we are delivering a number of PAWS systems for this update.
• Embedded Systems; TYX are providing a Windows NT Embedded based PAWS system in support of this tank application.
• Elettronica have purchased a PAWS NT configuration to migrate their earlier EURODASS TPS. INDRA DTD followed suit recently, and we expect the UK partner to migrate their configuration in the very near future.
• Agusta have purchased a PAWS configuration in support of their work on the SHAPAW program for the EH-101.

All in all, a busy year on the European front! On the Far Eastern front, we hosted three (count them 3!) PAWS User Group meetings back to back this year in the first week of June. The venues were Osaka, Nagoya, and Tokyo. Overall, there were some 60+ attendees. The number and attendance is a testimonial to the interest in PAWS in Japan. We are currently on the tail end of the F-2 program, and there are a number of other initiatives under way, and we will report them in due course, as we are sworn to secrecy on a number of these Programs. The NEC TOW Missile re-host is almost complete (some 99.5% complete), and the interesting highlight is that about 50% of the TPS show a reduction in run time of 50%! This project replaced an obsolete proprietary tester with a HP COTS tester including new ITAs’.

At the recently concluded IVI meeting in Munich TYX demonstrated a C++ client interface to a COM set of drivers from HP and NI to show instrument interchangeability without affecting the application TPS layer. The same client interfaced seamlessly from PAWS to demonstrate that PAWS too can benefit from this upcoming standardisation effort. In addition, the author was appointed as head of the Signal Interface Working Group, with a view to coordinate the efforts of both the IEEE ATLAS 2000 Task group and the IVI foundation’s efforts in the adoption of Signal Models as a further degree of standardisation.

The Next Generation of tools has taken flight in the form of the Adaptive, Re-configurable Test System Software (ARTS). On top of the Hughes Analog Payload Module Test system, TYX are involved in a program in the UK to deliver the next ARTS system. Details on ARTS can be found on our web site. One of the exciting developments on ARTS is the addition of the capability of the Test Controller to provide APIs to support multiple Test environments, including PAWS and LabWindows/CVI. This concept is easily extensible to support other vendor offerings such as HP-VEE. The TestBase section of this newsletter describes this functionality.

In addition to the numerous Y2K efforts reported in earlier issues, we are still expecting a few more customers to sign on to the PAWS COTS methodology to beat the Y2K clock!

TYX was awarded an SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) Program from the USAF on the topic JAVA Based Automatic Test System and Test Program Set Environment. This Phase I award was announced in the spring of this year.

We are pleased to report at press time that our customer likes what we have demonstrated as a result of Phase I and we are eagerly anticipating the start of Phase II. We will keep you abreast of new developments as we cross into the next millenium.

As a result of the RTCASS development, the PAWS system sports the ability to interface with different Graphics formats directly from the ATLAS world. Various multi media formats such as MPEG, JPG, GIF, BMP, HTML etc. can be accessed from ATLAS. Please refer to our web site if you would like more information about these features.

As a result of the IFTE CTE development, the PAWS system has the ability to mirror the IFTE Station displays. This is further evidence of the component ware and middle ware which the PAWS product line is rapidly evolving into. As a result of the adoption of such open architecture, it is quite straightforward to plug in additional requirements using Java, C++, or Visual Basic.

TYX has developed a new version of the Run Time System that permits its operation in an open and distributed environment. User applications can now easily tap into and avail of the powerful functionality of the RTS via standard DCOM interfaces. Some of the major features of the new RTS include:

• Component interfaces allowing for binary interoperability and easy integration with client applications written in any language. A Java-based Kanji character RTS GUI has been developed to demonstrate the ease with which components can plug into the RTS.
• Remote operation through a GUI or custom client application that resides on a different networked machine (in addition to the standard local GUI).
• Remote operation of instruments on (possibly multiple) remote test stations.
• Multi-language support permitting the user to easily reconfigure the RTS and the standard RTS GUI for languages other than English.
• Enhanced debugging capabilities including the ability to debug (even remotely) an already running RTS.
• Small memory footprint making it ideal for use in embedded applications
• Permit multiple clients to monitor RTS performance and obtain state information.
• Provide fully configurable notification mechanisms for a variety of events
• Enhanced DataLogger functions providing for the recording of a variety of both RTS events and associated user-supplied data. The standard DataLogger output is now XML.
• Support for integration of user-written recorders allowing the user to capture and record RTS data and events in any manner desired.

Our first delivery of this technology was for the Boeing PIP. In this scenario, the RTS server engine resides on the PIP and the client is controlled by an IETM located on the Sikorsky Portable Maintenance Aid.

The PAWS RTS has been enhanced to enable improved handling of ATLAS connection variables. The algorithm for determining switch paths involving connection variables was modified to achieve the following main goals:

1. Minimize relay resource conflicts. Previously, driven by the need to minimize run-time computer resources, the information regarding a singe point to point route that was handed to the RTS was limited to a single route, the shortest. In many instances that would be sufficient but situations exist where the set of the shortest paths between the multiple pair points that appear in a ATLAS connection field is not necessarily the desired solution. This is because conflicting use of a specific switch may be introduced when multiple pairs of points are introduced. With the current enhancement, path computation is performed with the objective of minimizing such conflicts.

2. Minimize sneak paths. When switches are ganged, unwanted sneak paths may result when multiple pairs of points appear in an ATLAS connection statement. With the current enhancement, path computation is performed with the objective of minimizing such sneak paths.

A complete revamp of this popular tool was recently released to customers. The first customer using it is quite pleased as it is:

• Blindingly fast, over 10 times faster than the previous version
• It generates PDF output for seamless integration with your Desktop tools.
• It also provides hyper links for electronic thumbing through the flowchart.

The Data Logger has been revamped to allow user definable inputs, with XML being used to deliver multi-lingual capabilities, as well as ultimate user flexibility in the design and deployment of user defined forms for input/output. A comprehensive interface to QUOTIS has been implemented for DASA LFK on the EuroFighter production line.

The PAWS Signal Flow Analyzer is undergoing modifications that will result in substantial performance improvement especially for complex TPSs. The Flow Analyzer emulates the execution of an ATLAS program through every possible path in order to determine the 'signal' state at any point of the program. It is that 'signal' state information that is used to determine 'signal' concurrency that becomes an input to the Signal Resource Allocator which prevents conflicting use of device resources. In order to emulate program execution a control flow graph of the entire ATLAS program must be constructed. Determination of the 'signal' state requires the 'transfer function', (i.e. given an input 'signal state' compute the output 'signal state') of each component of the ATLAS program. To simplify the determination of the 'transfer function' of components that invoke a 'procedure', the flow graph is expanded for each procedure invocation. That innocent decision to expand 'procedure' flow graphs has resulted in excessive processing time (many hours !) and excessive virtual memory requirements (greater than the limit of 65Mbyte) for those complex TPS's that use many 'procedure's.

This past summer at an engineering brainstorming session the suggestion that the 'transfer function' of a 'procedure' could be determined by a manner similar to that used by electronic engineers for complex networks was suggested. That is by making measurements of input and output characteristics, solving a few simple equations that result in an 'equivalent circuit' for the network. A detailed analysis of the suggestion indicates that for those complex TPS's that use many 'procedure's the potential time saving is greater than 100 ! A program that took 1 hour to complete flow analysis may now require no more than 1 minute! Yet again, the TYX propensity to adapt computing technologies from the mainstream to solve thorny Test related issues has paid off for the customer base.

TestBase is a diagnostic tool with database storage capability and an integrated development environment. TestBase provides the following added value to an integrated testing solution by supporting:

• execution of Test Procedures developed in multiple languages via integration with COTS test executives (PAWS, LabWindows, the SBIR Java Controller etc).
• persistent storage for very large amounts of Test Preparation Data (test strategy and test input parameters), Test Results Data (test outcomes and test output parameters) and Diagnostic Data (including history information for off-line analysis).
• multiple Test Strategies including "enhanced" fault trees that permit complex test strategies to be constructed
• a unique GUI (please see figure below) for development that allows the user to characterize Test Procedures, design and debug fault-tree Test Strategies as well as characterize Test Execution Documentation.
• integration with COTS diagnostic reasoners allowing for automatic import of Test Strategy and Test Parameter Data.
• code reuse, by decoupling the Test Strategy from the Test Programs
• management and automatic display of reports and test, maintenance and repair documentation
• virtual testing, through simulated execution of Test Strategies.

TestBase® Explorer

We led off this year’s series in March with a meeting in the UK hosted by Apsys, our UK Distributor. We reported earlier on the Japanese PUG series.

The US PUG held during AUTOTESTCON week, was a smashing success with over 60 attendees present. We had over 70 people signed up prior to the meeting; a record for US PUG meetings to date. We followed this up with a Munich PUG which just happened to coincide with the opening festivities of Oktoberfest in Munich. The meeting was well attended without question!

We look forward to seeing you all in the next millenium at one of our User Group Meetings.