Presagis unveiled at Avionics Expo 2019 in Munich an application built using the VAPX XT tool running CoreAVI’s VKCore SC graphics drivers, a safety critical version of the Vulkan API introduced by the Khronos group in 2016. According to their website, “Vulkan is a new generation graphics and compute API that provides high-efficiency, cross-platform access to modern GPUs used in a wide variety of devices from PCs and consoles to mobile phones and embedded platforms.”
This demonstration provides a clear path for developing Vulkan based graphics when using VAPS XT to design graphical user interfaces. Presagis’ VAPS XT enables application developers to efficiently use Vulkan technology to design high performance graphics by removing any coding intricacies it may bring and allowing them to focus on the design. VAPS XT’s code generation module performs the bulk of the work and allows application developers to leverage the advanced capabilities of the Vulkan API to design high performance user graphical interfaces.
The application built using VAPS XT is supported by CoreAVI’s VkCore SC which is the avionics industry’s first safety critical Vulkan-based graphics and compute driver and is RTCA DO-178C/EUROCAE ED-12C certifiable up to Design Assurance Level (DAL) A. The application is also running VkCoreGL™ SC application libraries which enable customers running OpenGL® applications to harness the enhanced capabilities offered by Vulkan graphics and compute functions, while still using OpenGL, allowing integrators a facilitated transition period to using the full Vulkan API.
“CoreAVI has a long-standing partnership with Presagis to deliver safety critical graphics and HMI tools to the Mil/Aero industry,” said Dan Joncas, Executive VP of Sales and Marketing at CoreAVI. “We are excited that Presagis has chosen to integrate our new VkCore SC graphics and compute driver with their HMI modeling and simulation tool. We look forward to enabling our joint customers with platforms for safety critical applications that allow them to harness the full potential of modern compute and graphics capabilities.”
Presagis has provided HMI graphical modeling and development tools to produce state-of-the-art graphics and highly optimized code for both PC and embedded systems for over 30 years. Its flagship product VAPS XT is an open and extensible COTS graphical HMI modeling and development tool for developing real-time applications supporting general HMI and ARINC 661 HMI certifiable and non-certifiable safety-critical environments. It is an easy-to-use yet powerful full-featured software tool for the rapid development of interactive graphical HMI displays for avionics and other applications. It allows a user to capture the design of an HMI, automatically generate source code to implement that design, and ultimately achieve certification up to DAL A for DO-178C.