Vector Software Solutions for Automotive
Turbocharged testing for your embedded software
Competition in the automotive industry is intense. Successful companies must constantly innovate by introducing new features, many of which contain significant amounts of software. The automobile has been transformed, from a primarily mechanical device, into an integrated machine, with embedded software in all major systems including: engine control, power train, suspension, braking, and entertainment. Yet, because the automotive industry is a much higher volume industry than avionics, suppliers must also control cost. Traditionally, software testing has been very expensive, yet the cost of finding software bugs after the vehicle is sold can require a recall to fix, and more importantly can damage product branding.
Automotive Software Verification and Validation Standards
There are two software standards that apply to the verification and validation of vehicle based software: ISO 26262 and MISRA.
ISO 26262 is a Functional Safety standard that is currently under development, titled "Road vehicles -- Functional safety". The standard is an adaptation of the Functional Safety standard IEC 61508 for Automotive Electric/Electronic Systems. Part 6 of this standard addresses the recommendations for software testing and verification as part of the standard for software development. Recommended activities include both unit level and system level testing such as functional tests (requirement-based tests and partition tests) and structural coverage tests.
How VectorCAST Supports the ISO 26262 Standard
The VectorCAST tools for ISO 26262 satisfies the recommendations for software testing and verification specified in Part 6 of the standard for software development by supporting the creation and management of test cases to prove that the low level software requirements have been tested. VectorCAST is also used for a variety of robustness testing activities such as range and out of bounds testing. Additionally, the VectorCAST tools support the capture and reporting of structural code coverage at all levels required by ISO 26262.
The VectorCAST/C++ test tools for C and C++ unit and integration testing, combined with VectorCAST/Cover for system-level test verification provide a complete dynamic test suite for host, simulator, and target level testing.
VectorCAST Satisfies the ISO 26262 Testing Requirements
VectorCAST for ISO 26262
Integrated Support for MISRA
Static analysis has been a big part of the automotive application development process since the advent of the Motor Industry Software Reliability Association (MISRA) C standard. The Guidelines for the Use of the C Language in Vehicle Based Software is a document, which was first published in 1998 to promote safe use of the C language in the automotive industry. It contains rules defining a subset of the C language that is now widely accepted as a model for good programming practice. The MISRA C++: 2008 Guidelines for the use of the C++ Language in Critical Systems standard was published in 2008 to define similar rules for the C++ language.
VectorCAST is integrated with the QA·C and QA·C++ static analysis tools from Programming Research. Their MISRA C and C++ compliance modules analyze source code and detect constructs which do not comply with the MISRA rules.
In Summary the VectorCAST products provide the following:
- Complete test-harness construction for unit and integration testing
- Test execution from GUI or scripts
- Code-coverage analysis
- Regression testing
- Automatic tests based on decision paths
- User-defined tests for requirements-based testing
- Automated coding standards enforcement with QA·C and QA·C++
- Test execution playback to assist in debugging
- Integration with Telelogic's Rhapsody® Modeling and DOORS® Requirement Tools