November 16, 2010

Paris Metro replaces testing of interlocking and CBTC systems with formal safety verification using Prover Certifier

Stockholm, Sweden and Toulouse, France - November 16, 2010. Prover Technology today announced that its software product Prover Certifier has replaced traditional safety testing of interlocking and Communication-Based Train Control (CBTC) systems that entered revenue service in 2010 at RATP (Regie Autonome des Transports Parisiens), the Paris Metro infrastructure manager.

The product was used for formal verification of the safety of the PIPC interlocking systems supplied by Thales for Paris Metro line 3b, and the wayside CBTC system supplied by Ansaldo STS for Paris Metro Line 3. The application of the product provided independent, formal proof that these state-of-the-art railway signaling software systems always respect the safety requirements stipulated by RATP.
Pierre Chartier, safety director at RATP, said "RATP and Prover have collaborated since 2004 on formal safety verification of interlocking and CBTC systems. We're very satisfied to have reached the point that formal verification with Prover Certifier can replace testing-based methods. We use formal verification to reduce costs while maintaining the highest possible level of safety verification."

Prover Certifier was developed to meet the highest Safety Integrity Level, SIL 4, of the CENELEC (European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization) standard EN50128. This makes it possible to replace time-consuming and incomplete testing-based methods for safety verification with exhaustive, formal proof-based safety verification.
In addition to the signaling systems whose safety assessment was based solely on the application of Prover Certifier, a number of interlocking systems installed on line 11 and line 12 of Paris Metro have previously been formally verified using Prover Certifier.

About Formal Verification
Formal verification is an analysis method based on mathematical proof. Formal verification is strongly recommended by safety standards organizations such as CENELEC, and several leading railway infrastructure managers, such as Paris Metro, Swedish National Rail, Norwegian National Rail and New York City Transit require formal verification for safety assessment of certain types of systems. The reason: formal verification increases safety and quality, and provides more efficient processes for otherwise costly and time-consuming safety testing.

About Prover Technology
Prover Technology provides software products and services for development of control and signaling systems. The company was founded in 1989 and is privately held. It is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden with wholly owned subsidiaries in France and USA. Prover Technology's customer base includes Ansaldo STS, ABB, Bombardier Transportation, Canadian Pacific Railway, Invensys Rail, New York City Transit, Norwegian National Rail, Paris Metro (RATP), Stockholm Metro, Swedish National Rail, Thales, and many others. For more information and office locations, visit Prover Technology's web site at http://www.prover.com/.