Patent ID: 8819646
Filing Date: 2014-08-26
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. An arrangement method for arranging application software designed for equipment on board an aircraft on one of a plurality of computer hardware units at a given time, wherein said plurality of computer hardware units includes a real computer hardware unit of the on-board equipment and a plurality of virtual computer hardware units of virtual equipment for an aircraft, each computer hardware unit having an operating system, source code, and a compiler, wherein the real computer hardware unit further includes at least one real input/output card, wherein each virtual computer hardware unit further includes at least one real and/or virtual input/output cards, said arrangement method comprises the following steps: a step of arranging a first software unit having said application software and a standardized software-hardware abstraction software layer, the standardized software-hardware abstraction software layer being made up of a library of interface primitives having a common software structure and suitable for being associated with source codes of the first software unit and with the real computer hardware unit and each of the virtual computer hardware units; a step of arranging the real computer hardware unit with a real-hardware software layer, arranging a first one of the virtual computer hardware units with a first virtual-hardware software layer, and arranging a second one of the virtual computer hardware units with a second virtual-hardware software layer, the real-hardware software layer being suitable for communicating with the standardized software-hardware abstraction software layer when the standardized software-hardware abstraction software layer is interfaced with the real-hardware software layer so that the real-hardware software layer can co-operate with the at least one real input/output card of the real computer hardware unit, the first virtual-hardware software layer being suitable for communicating with the standardized software-hardware abstraction software layer when the standardized software-hardware abstraction software layer is interfaced with the first virtual-hardware software layer so that the first virtual-hardware software layer can co-operate with the at least one real and/or virtual input/output cards of the first one of the virtual computer hardware units, and the second virtual-hardware software layer being suitable for communicating with the standardized software-hardware abstraction software layer when the standardized software-hardware abstraction software layer is interfaced with the second virtual-hardware software layer so that the second virtual-hardware software layer can co-operate with the at least one real and/or virtual input/output cards of the second one of the virtual computer hardware units; a step of arranging the first software unit on the first one of the virtual computer hardware units, arranging a second software unit having the application software and a second standardized software-hardware abstraction software layer on the second one of the virtual computer hardware units, and arranging communications software layers of the first and second virtual computer hardware units between the first and second software units by recompiling and editing links with the library of the standardized software-hardware abstraction software layer on the first virtual computer hardware unit and a library of the second standardized software-hardware abstraction software layer on the second virtual computer hardware unit, each communications software layer including a data exchange intermediate software element constituting a software interface socket of the operating system of a corresponding virtual computer hardware unit with a communications network protocol service for communicating with other software units; wherein the step of arranging communications software layers implements and manages data exchanges between virtual input/output cards of the first and second virtual computer hardware units; and a step of connecting disturbance software to the virtual-hardware software layer of the first virtual computer hardware unit with the first software unit arranged thereon to deliver indications of physical disturbances to be encountered on the real computer hardware unit and conveyed by the communications software layer of the first virtual computer hardware unit.