MathWorks has announced enhancements to its Polyspace embedded code verification products, which prove the absence of certain run-time errors in source code. The new Polyspace metrics Web dashboard, automated scheduling of verification jobs, e-mail notification and increased code metric support allow engineers to choose and track embedded software quality metrics and thresholds. These enhancements help software teams to better define quality objectives and reach these faster for high-integrity applications across the automotive, aerospace, defense, and industrial automation & machinery industries.

Embedded software in critical applications needs to meet specific software quality objectives as part of regulatory mandates or corporate verification processes. In order for software teams to achieve these objectives, developers and managers need to define quality goals, the evaluation criteria and the associated metrics thresholds. The Polyspace metrics Web dashboard helps software developers define relevant metrics and thresholds, such as code metrics, MISRA-C and run-time error metrics. It also provides the ability to track progress of these metrics through the verification process and to compare differences in quality in each code revision.

Another challenge for high-integrity application development is that non-systematic enforcement of verification tasks can lead to code quality fluctuations. Polyspace now offers integration with nightly processes and email systems, helping to automate the process of continuous verification. Engineers can reduce the iterative work of manual verification tasks, allowing them to focus on higher-level verification tasks such as addressing new issues arising between two versions of the same code.

"In addition to verifying that embedded software is free of run-time errors, quality engineers and managers need visibility into the software quality lifecycle," said Brett Murphy, technical marketing manager, MathWorks. "Teams using a common interface to design software quality models that support continuous code verification and measure their progress relative to critical metrics will be able to meet increasing demands for high quality software."