GrammaTech Awarded NASA Contract for Advanced Static Analysis Technology

PRLog (Press Release) – Jan 28, 2008 – GrammaTech, Inc., a leading provider of source-code analysis tools, today announced that it has been awarded an additional $600,000 to an existing NASA contract for developing advanced static-analysis technology.  The new NASA-funded technology will advance the state-of-the-art in static-analysis testing of high-assurance software and help NASA increase software reliability.

The technology is inspired by work done by the NASA/JPL Laboratory for Reliable Software (LaRS), which focuses on improving the reliability of mission-critical software.  In 2006, Gerard Holzmann, the LaRS technical lead, proposed ten rules for developing safety-critical software.  The list distills the large number of guidelines available to a handful of vital rules that most safety critical software-development projects can adopt as a base.

When he proposed the rules, Holzmann remarked that “Tool-based checks are important because manually reviewing the hundreds of thousands of line of code that are written for larger applications is often infeasible.”[1]  In the first phase of the effort, GrammaTech implemented technology that automatically checks whether software adheres to Holzmann’s rules.

“Two approaches are gaining traction and acceptance as partial solutions to the software safety problem.  The first is the adoption of coding standards, and the second is the use of advanced static-analysis tools to both enforce compliance with the standards and uncover latent programming flaws.  This work combines both of these approaches,” said Paul Anderson, VP of Engineering at GrammaTech.

About GrammaTech
GrammaTech’s static-analysis tools are used worldwide by startups, Fortune 500 companies, educational institutions, and government agencies.  The staff includes ten PhD-level experts in programming languages and program analysis.  The company has offices in Ithaca, New York, and San Jose, California. More information about GrammaTech can be found at www.grammatech.com.

GrammaTech is a trademark of GrammaTech, Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective companies.

The URL for this release is located at:
http://www.grammatech.com/news/2008/releases/01-28-08.html


[1] G.J. Holzmann, “The Power of Ten: Rules for Developing Safety Critical Code,” IEEE Computer, June 2006.

North American Sales Contact: GrammaTech, Inc., 960 Saratoga Ave., Suite 113, San Jose, CA 95129, Tel: 408-246-9100, Email: info@grammatech.com, Website: www.grammatech.com.

International Sales Contacts: UK and SCANDINAVIA: Scientific Computers Ltd, Jubilee House, Jubilee Walk, Three Bridges, CRAWLEY, West Sussex, RH10 1LQ, UK, Tel: +44 (0)1293 403636, Email: info@scl.com.

FRANCE: ISIT, 8 Av. Jean Mermoz, Bât. Les Diamants, 31770 COLOMIERS, FRANCE, Tel: +33 (0)5 61 30 69 00, Fax: +33 (0)5 61 16 50 63, Email: isit@isit.fr.

JAPAN: A.I. Corporation, Iijima Bldg, 2-25-2, Nishigotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, 141-0031, Japan, Tel: +81-3-3493-7981, Fax: +81-3-3493-7993, Email: sales@aicp.co.jp.

KOREA: MDS Technology Co., Ltd., 15F., Kolon Digital Tower Billant, Guro3-dong, Guro-gu, Seoul, Korea, 152-777, Tel: +82-2-2106-6000, Email: grammatech@mdstec.com.