NICTA tool revolutionises software reliability

Beverley Head
Wednesday, 12 August 2009 12:52

Business IT - Security

“As embedded computer systems grow in importance and become an invisible but integral part of our lives it’s vital that critical systems do not fail. This will be very important in defence and safety industries and the NICTA result is a huge leap.”

Sporting a sling on his left arm courtesy of what Dr Skellern described as some “extreme gardening” he welcomed 500 people to Techfest09, a record crowd for the organisation which was this year guaranteed funding by the Federal Government through until 2015.

“NICTA’s vision is that our imaginative research drives Australia’s ICT future...our goal is to generate a sustainable flow of technologies that will fuel globally competitive ICT companies.”

The mathematical proof technology will be taken to market by Open Kernel Labs, one of NICTA’s spin off companies although exactly how it will be marketed has not yet been determined according to a NICTA spokesperson. According to OK Labs chief technology officer, Professor Gernot Heiser the new tools will however; “change the game for security and safety critical software.

“It provides conclusive evidence that bug-free software is possible and in the future nothing less should be considered acceptable where critical assets are at stake.”