Surprising Places Where Ada Is Used

For the first time, Ada is in the top 10 of the PYPL index. Read on to discover more about the versatility of this language.

The Ada programming language is best known for its role in safety-critical and real-time systems. Domains where correctness, predictability, and long-term maintainability are paramount. Initially commissioned by the US Department of Defense in the late 1970s, Ada was designed with strong typing, modularity, and compile-time checks to prevent software errors that could have catastrophic consequences. Today, Ada remains the language of choice for high-integrity applications in aerospace, rail, automotive, and defense.

However, the story doesn't end there. Outside these well-publicized sectors, Ada is being used in a wide variety of less expected domains, including metro systems, 3D design software, financial trading, and logistics modeling. This article examines some of the unexpected areas where Ada and SPARK are making a difference, showcasing the language’s adaptability and enduring relevance.

The Victoria Line – Automation with Confidence

The Victoria Line in London was the world's first fully automated underground railway, and Ada played a pivotal role in making it possible. The Automatic Train Operation (ATO) system was developed by Aerosystems International (now BAE Systems, Yeovil) using Ada for the main control logic, while the emergency braking system was written in SPARK.

SPARK enabled engineers to apply formal methods to verify the safety-critical properties of the braking system, including the absence of runtime errors and the guarantee of safety conditions. The software’s reliability and precision were key to achieving certification and operational performance. Notably, the same core system was later adapted for use on the Taipei Metro, highlighting Ada’s portability and robustness over time.

Pricer Software in Banking and Finance

BNP Paribas, one of the world’s leading banking and financial services institutions, operates in a highly dynamic and risk-sensitive environment. An important aspect of its operations within its Global Markets division is the need for a robust and reliable risk calculation engine that can handle millions of daily requests with high accuracy, performance, and reliability. BNP Paribas adopted the Ada programming language to enhance its ability to meet these demands for its risk calculation models within the equity pricer.

Deep Blue Capital – Safe Systems in Finance

Algorithmic trading environments demand low latency, high throughput, and absolute correctness. At Deep Blue Capital, Ada is used to implement trading algorithms that execute thousands of transactions per second. The company's engineers chose Ada not just for its efficiency, but for its compile-time safety features, strong typing, and memory safety guarantees.

In an industry where a single logic bug could result in financial loss or regulatory risk, Ada offers a powerful safeguard. Moreover, the language encourages disciplined software engineering practices, which are critical in a domain characterised by high complexity and volatility.

Stratégies-Romans – Engineering with Precision

Stratégies-Romans, a French software vendor, developed a comprehensive 3D computer-aided design (CAD) suite using Ada. Their software supports a range of design and modelling tasks and is used by engineers and designers in industrial settings.

CAD applications require handling complex object models, user interactions, and graphics rendering while maintaining responsiveness and numerical stability. Ada's modularity, package-based architecture, and type safety enable a well-structured and maintainable codebase. Its use here demonstrates that Ada is equally suited to large-scale interactive systems, not just embedded controllers.

Systems Consult – Modelling Multimodal Transport Systems

Polydrom is a sophisticated multimodal transport simulation system that was developed by the now-defunct Systems Consult.1 Built in Ada, it models the dynamic interactions of road traffic, rail networks, and pedestrian systems, making it a valuable tool for urban planners and transport engineers.

Simulation software often demands a high degree of concurrency, determinism, and reproducibility. Ada’s built-in tasking model and real-time features allow such systems to be expressed naturally and reliably. The language’s support for modularity and formal interface contracts further aids in managing the complexity typically associated with simulation engines.

Krikos – Logistics Simulation for Real-World Efficiency

Krikos is a logistics simulation platform used to model supply chain operations, optimize resource allocation, and analyze process flows. Developed in Ada, the software was chosen for its reliability and strong data handling capabilities.

Simulation results in logistics are used to drive real-world decisions, making precision and reproducibility essential. Ada’s strict typing, predictable memory management, and low-level control enable developers to build high-performance systems that behave deterministically under load—a key requirement in logistics modelling.

Conclusion

Although Ada is often categorised as a niche language confined to aerospace and defence, its application extends far beyond those traditional domains. From financial trading to 3D design, and from metro control systems to logistics simulation, Ada is quietly enabling reliable, maintainable, and high-performance systems across a wide range of industries.

In an era where software failures can be both costly and dangerous, Ada’s core strengths, correctness, clarity, and long-term maintainability, are more relevant than ever. As these surprising examples show, Ada is not just a language of the past, but a pragmatic choice for building tomorrow’s trustworthy systems.

*with particular thanks to Gautier de Montmollin and Paul Butcher for their help with this article

References:

¹ Konstantinos Chatzis. Forecasting Urban Traffic in France, 1950s to 2000s. 2014. Ffhal-01071139v1f https://enpc.hal.science/hal-01071139v1/document

More information about this project can be found in a mention on page 24 of this paper, which discusses the forecasting of urban traffic in France. Although the company Systems Consult no longer exists, the work they did had a clear impact.