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US Air Force (F-16) Data Entry Cockpit Interface (DECIS) J3 JOVIAL to C++
The CRSIP office selected Data Entry Cockpit Interface Set (DECIS) as an ideal candidate for comparing the effectiveness of Automated Software Modernization (ASM) technologies with manual modernization methods in mission-critical systems. Roughly 50,000 lines of JOVIAL code from DECIS Block 30 had been modernized by an Air Force contractor. Cost data was available for this manual effort that took over a year to complete. CRSIP, in coordination with the YPVO F-16 Program Office, contracted with TSRI to perform a pilot program for the automated transformation of this same block of DECIS J73 JOVIAL into C++. The purpose was to provide a direct comparison of automated to manual software modernization processes. Challenge: J73 JOVIAL is an advanced version of a 1960s era 3rd Generation Language (3GL) developed by the United States Air Force for embedded systems with real time requirements and tight hardware tolerances, (limited memory and radiation hardened computers). JOVIAL language complexities include dynamic overlays of data structures, bit-sizable fields, bit-level operators, flexible macro processing and embedded sub-languages, including 1750 assembly. Modernization of diverse JOVIAL dialects containing 60-bit and 36-bit word lengths needed to target modern hardware platforms. CRSIP contracted with TSRI for an "integrator-ready" transformation of the DECIS J73 JOVIAL code into modern C++. Results: TSRI delivered the modernized DECIS C++ to the YPVO F-16 Program Office. This deliverable was 100% accurate and compilation and link error free. On this pilot, TSRI's demonstrated the reduced schedule time and high software quality associated with automated modernization processes.
At the conclusion of the pilot, qualitative evaluations of the automatically generated DECIS C++ code were very favorable. However the most impressive findings were the projected time schedule reductions implied by the transformation of the 2nd DECIS J3 JOVIAL subsystem in quick succession.
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