O.C.E. Technology’s Debug Tool Approved for European Space Agency’s Next Generation Navigation Technology

O.C.E. Technology, an Irish software company, today announced that its debug tool (DMON) has been approved by the European Space Agency (ESA) to support its latest navigation processor, the AGGA-4.

The AGGA-4 chip, installed on satellites and spacecraft, measures signal distortions in the upper atmosphere which are used for weather prediction modelling. The chip can also be used to measure maritime conditions using reflections from ocean surfaces. The chip uses signals from European, US, Russian or Chinese global positioning systems to find its precise location in space.

It can be notoriously difficult and time consuming to debug software applications on such complex processors as the AGGA-4 chip where analogue signals from up to 40 channels are being simultaneously combined and decoded.

OCE’s DMON user interface will enable ESA embedded system developers to quickly determine the source of any problem or bug on the AGGA-4 chip and apply a fix in a faster and more efficient manner than other available tools thereby improving productivity.

O.C.E. Technology, headquartered at NovaUCD, the Centre for New Ventures and Entrepreneurs at University College Dublin, develops software for technical applications and supplies radiation-hardened chip-level components targeted primarily at the space and high-reliability sectors.

Barry Kavanagh, O.C.E. Technology, CEO, said, “We are delighted that our DMON debug tool has been approved by ESA to support its latest navigation processor. Testing and debugging accounts for 25% of developers’ time and they consider debug tools to be their most important tools. DMON will now enable ESA developers to be more efficient as they can now debug applications faster and more efficiently.”

He added, “In fact during final testing with the ESA navigation chip DMON identified a fix for an issue that had eluded design engineers for several months.”

Claudio Monteleone, Technical Officer, ESA, said, “A debug tool such as DMON is a major asset to European companies designing applications for this and similar integrated circuits.”

At the forthcoming 2017 Paris Space Week O.C.E. Technology, an Enterprise Ireland client, will be introducing a range of satellite subsystems based on systems in use in the Chinese space programme.