MIL-STD-1553 and ARINC 429 are the de facto communications buses in avionics and other military applications, and Data Device Corporation (DDC) is regarded as a COTS market leader, providing the lion’s share of ICs supporting each bus. But avionics systems are not controlled by silicon alone: There’s sophisticated software required during the simulation, design, test, verification, and integration phases of every program. So with DDC’s updated software-licensing options ready to roll, designers have more flexibility in how they want to pay for that software. It’s not sexy or technical, but it’s an essential reality in cost-constrained DoD programs.
DDC’s host-based software packages can now be covered under three types of licenses: USB dongle, node-locked, and network. The dongle is for one-off systems, often laptops that move from place to place. The node-locked license is intended for dedicated, secure computers that absolutely must remain in a fixed location, without the hassle of an external license or key. And finally, the network license is useful for distributed teams that do simultaneous development work in multiple locations. All three new license types apply to the company’s dataSIMS, BusTrACEr, ARINC Data Bus Analyzer, and LabVIEW Support Package software products. We’ll say it again: not sexy, but certainly a very welcomed change that’ll save implementation costs in mil programs.