From Specification To Embedded Systems Application

IFIP TC10 Working Conference: Internationall Embedded Systems Symposium (IESS), August 15-17, 2005, Manaus, Brazil

As almost no other technology, embedded systems is an essential element of many innovations in automotive engineering. New functions and improvements of already existing functions, as well as the compliance with traffic regulations and customer requirements, have only become possible by the increasing use of electronic systems, especially in the fields of driving, safety, reliability, and functionality. Along with the functionalities that increase in number and have to cooperate, the complexity of the entire system will increase. Synergy effects resulting from distributed application functionalities via several electronic control devies, exchanging information through the network brings about more complex system architectures with many different sub-networks, operating with different velocities and different protocol implementations. To manage the increasing complexity of these systems, a deterministic behaviour of the control units and the communication network must be provided for, in particular when dealing with a distributed functionality. From Specification to Embedded Systems Application documents recent approaches and results presented at the International Embedded Systems Symposium (IESS 2005), which was held in August 2005 in Manaus (Brazil) and sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP). The topics which have been chosen for this working conference are very timely: design methodology, modeling, specification, software synthesis, power management, formal verification, testing, network, communication systems, distributed control systems, resource management and special aspects in system design.

Specification and design methodology has seen significant growth as a research area over the last decade, tracking but lagging behind VLSI design technology in general and the CAD industry in particular. The commercial rush to market tries to leverage existing technology which fuels CAD design tool development. Paralleling this is very active basic and applied research to investigate and move forward rational and effective methodologies for accomplishing digital design, especially in the field of hardware/software codesign. It is this close relationship between industry and academia that makes close cooperation between researchers and practitioners so important-and monographs like this that combine both abstract concept and pragmatic implementation deftly bridge this often gaping chasm. It was at the IEEE/ACM Eighth International Symposium on Hardware/Software Codesign where I met the author of this monograph, Dr. Randall Janka, who was presenting some of his recent dissertation research results on specification and design methodology, or as he has so succinctly defined this sometimes ambiguous concept, "the tools and rules." Where so many codesign researchers are trying to prove out different aspects of codesign and using toy applications to do so, Dr. Janka had developed a complete specification and design methodology and prototyped the infrastructure-and proven its viability, utility, and effectiveness using a demanding real-world application of a real-time synthetic aperture radar imaging processor that was implemented with embedded parallel processors.

This is the first book on embedded systems to offer a unified approach to hardware and software specification and design issues -- and the first to outline a new specify-explore-refine paradigm that is presently being used in industry in an ad-hoc manner, but until now has not been formally described. The book addresses the system design methodology from conceptualization to manufacturing using this new paradigm, and shows how this methodology can result in 10x improvement in productivity. Addresses two of the most significant topics in the design of digital systems -- executable system specification and a methodology for system partitioning and refinement into system-level components. Covers models and architectures; specification languages; a specification example; translation to VHDL; system partitioning; design quality estimation; specification refinement into synthesizable models; and system-design methodology and environment. Contains a complete specification of a model product (telephone answering machine), and demonstrates how to write the specification from an English description. For RISC design methodologists and VHDL methodologists; and CAD software developers.

This book presents the perspective of the project on a Paradigm Unifying System Specification Environments for proven Electronic design (PUS SEE) as conceived in the course of the research during 2002 -2003. The initial statement of the research was formulated as follows: The objective of PUSSEE is to introduce the formal proof of system properties throughout a modular system design methodology that integrates sub-systems co-verification with system refinement and reusability of virtual system components. This will be done by combining the UML and B languages to allow the verification of system specifications through the composition of proven sub-systems (in particular interfaces, using the VSIAISLIF standard). The link of B with C, VHDL and SystemC will extend the correct-by-construction design process to lower system-on-chip (SoC) development stages. Prototype tools will be developed for the code generation from UML and B, and existing B verification tools will be extended to support IP reuse, according to the VSI Alliance work. The methodology and tools will be validated through the development of three industrial applications: a wireless mobile terminal-a telecom system-on-chip based on HIPERLANI2 protocol and an anti-collision module for automobiles. The problem was known to be hard and the scope ambitious. But the seventeen chapters that follow, describing the main results obtained demonstrate the success of the research, acknowledged by the European reviewers. They are released to allow the largest audience to learn and take benefit of.

This book is the latest contribution to the Chip Design Languages series and it consists of selected papers presented at the Forum on Specifications and Design Languages (FDL'06), in September 2006. The book represents the state-of-the-art in research and practice, and it identifies new research directions. It highlights the role of specification and modelling languages, and presents practical experiences with specification and modelling languages.

This book is the latest contribution to the Chip Design Languages series and it consists of selected papers presented at the Forum on Specifications and Design Languages (FDL'07), in September 2007. The book represents the state-of-the-art in research and practice, and it identifies new research directions. It highlights the role of specification and modelling languages, and presents practical experiences with specification and modelling languages