DoD Taps Sylabs and DeciSym for Test Framework Using Singularity Containers

The Test Resource Management Center (TRMC) Test & Evaluation/Science & Technology (T&E/S&T) Program Office, in collaboration with the Chief Digital and AI Office (CDAO) of the Department of Defense (DoD), has selected DeciSym and Sylabs to develop a virtual data fabric for testing embedded systems that is based on Singularity containers.

Sylabs developed Singularity to create a single-file format that includes the runtime environment. That Singularity Image Format (SIF) eliminates the need for “tarballs” of files because Singularity is designed from the ground up to run on any kind of processor architecture.

DeciSym CEO Don Pellegrino says that capability makes Singularity ideal for building testing tools for software that is used, for example, within a wide range of modern weapon systems.

Specifically, the two companies are building a Measure & Share (Me&S) Storage Virtual Fabric that enables the integration and sharing of test data. The virtual fabric will facilitate using multiple data packages that can be reproduced for testing tools, processes and interfaces, notes Pellegrino.

The goal is to develop a mechanism to integrate cyber test results with real-world observed activities or other types of system performance testing in addition to creating a universal mechanism to quantify the efficacy of a cyber test or to quantify the readiness for a system to be tested.

The two companies also plan to develop a mechanism to reuse test vectors across multiple systems and promulgate test results across the broader DoD community and to the test and evaluation (T&E) community and the broader DoD community.

Finally, they also plan to develop a mechanism to measure the return on investment for cyber testing.

The original pilot for the project was developed under the auspices of Tradewind, an organization chartered to the DoD to accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence/machine learning and data analytics solutions.

The current approach used to test these types of systems is inefficient because tests are created for each individual platform, explains Pellegrino. As a result, the teams that develop these systems wind up replicating many of the same testing procedures, he noted.

Once a more standard approach to testing has been created it then also becomes simpler to collect data in a way that would more easily allow organizations to apply AI to testing processes, adds Pellegrino.

Syslabs CTO Adam Hughes says the alliance with DeciSym will further extend the reach of Singularity into embedded systems. Today, Singularity is widely used in high-performance computing (HPC) environments to enable applications to be deployed across a wide range of systems based on multiple types of processor architectures.

It’s not clear whether Singularity might find its way into other use cases involving embedded systems, but given the limited amount of compute resources these systems typically have, any approach that makes the most efficient use of the available infrastructure resources is likely to be considered.

In the meantime, however, the number of containerized applications running within some type of embedded system is about to exponentially increase as more data is processed and analyzed at the point where it is created and consumed.

Mike Vizard

Mike Vizard is a seasoned IT journalist with over 25 years of experience. He also contributed to IT Business Edge, Channel Insider, Baseline and a variety of other IT titles. Previously, Vizard was the editorial director for Ziff-Davis Enterprise as well as Editor-in-Chief for CRN and InfoWorld.

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