Apache Mission Processor Software: Partitioning & Distributed Display Architecture

The US Army/Boeing AH-64D Apache Block III helicopter program continues to evolve the Networked Common Operating Real-time Environment (NCORE) software architecture to support planned technology insertion application software. This paper describes continued evolution of the NCORE software architecture with focus on increasingly important safety and extensibility quality attributes. After summary of previous work and recap of the current NCORE architecture, the transition strategy from the existing display architecture to the new distributed display architecture is discussed. The new distributed display architecture, which accommodates navigation function safety mixed-criticality partitioning, is presented and analyzed relative to software architecture quality attribute tradeoffs. Through this analysis, the NCORE with new distributed display architecture is shown to meet partitioning objectives, enhance the ability to host third-party application software and is well capable of meeting current and future Army needs. Paper conclusions emphasize the importance of the distributed display architecture in meeting safety and extensibility attributes while providing a framework applicable to other avionics platforms.