SBIR-STTR Award

The Kneeboard must operate robustly and efficiently in disjointed environments at multiple security levels and with multiple IO streams. It is therefore a task that calls for a fresh start, away from the one-armed paperhanger model of handheld device design. Space Sciences Corporation arrives at this task with several unique abilities and pieces of IP which make the fresh start possible. Our approach [1] parts ways with most recent computer development by following classic Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP) paradigms which make it top-level design-naturalistic rather than top-level design-legalistic, and therefore give it Hardware-Software Equivalence (HSE), which is naturally robust, secure, modular, and part-swappable.

Benefit:
The output of this project will be useful to all the military services of the United States, plus other Government agencies like NASA which are at the cutting edge of complex computing needs. Its simplicity means it will also be useful in the commercial markets (like medical devices), because these often have a clear analogy to military security needs, as when handling confidential medical information. Non-military users will find the project techniques valuable wherever a definite goal is to be accomplished by uncertain or variable assets or means, and where bad conditions make it imperative that simple, robust command structure be able to make it fully through to goal, without bogging down in missing components or blue screen of death lockup. The output of all phases of this project will avoid closed-source code, closed standards, and ecosystem lock-in. Therefore they will tend to be adopted by all government and commercial entities that do not wish to be subjected to these hindrances. We will identify potential partners for commercialization in Phase I.

Keywords:
electronic kneeboard secure modular robust, electronic kneeboard secure modular robust

Securable Robust Tablet Nodes (SERTN) solution in Phase II will focus on delivery of a path to NSA CSfC certifiable software solution for operating mobile tablets in multi-level secured, disjointed mission environments to aid in the establishment of a common Electronic Kneeboard (EKB) capability across all United States Naval (USN) and United States Marine Corps (USMC) aviation platforms. We will develop a prototype software tool with a path towards multi-level secure processing capability and certification. The distinguishing feature/development of the SERTN Electronic Kneeboard is the fact that software pieces are not in general full-up virtual machines, but are independent processes running on a machine (virtual or otherwise) using multitasking or multiprocessing. The insecure

Benefit:
The output of this project will be useful to all the military services of the United States, plus other Government agencies like NASA which are at the cutting edge of complex computing needs. Its simplicity means it will also be useful in the commercial markets (like medical devices), because these often have a clear analogy to military security needs, as when handling confidential medical information. Non-military users will find the project techniques valuable wherever a definite goal is to be accomplished by uncertain or variable assets or means, and here bad conditions make it imperative that simple, robust command structure be able to make it fully through to goal, without bogging down in missing components or blue screen of death lockup. The output of all phases of this project will avoid closed-source code, closed standards, and ecosystem lock-in. Therefore, they will tend to be adopted by all government and commercial entities that do not wish to be subjected to these hindrances. Potential partners for commercialization includes AT&T Foundry/Labs and Oracle National Security Group/Systems and possibly Samsung. The follow-on to this project will include language development, which will be fully secure by using Communications Sequential Processing (CSP), especially in the form of Hardware Software Equivalence (HSE). The design will preclude the possibility of buffer overflows and of illicit replacement of code, controls, or data streams. When combined with the Phase I Option efforts, the result will be clearly designed and secure modular units that can be expressed as separate hardware, as software processes, or as a combination thereof. Because of the top-level protocol-based intercommunication, these once built will be swappable and interchangeable in all future development, including technological advances. Once feedback as to needs begins to arrive from the Navy and Marine Corps, this friendly design foundation will blossom into many components driven by mission needs. The development of these will be aided by hot-swapped new devices, addressing poor communication as well as for emergency reallocation of resources to critical needs.

Keywords:
Communications Sequential Processing, Occam, Hardware Software Equivalence (HSE), EKB, (CSP), Crawl-Space, Electronic Kneeboard, Hardware Independent Software Design (HISD)