Object-based hardware/software component interconnection model for interface design in system-on-a-chip circuits

The design of system-on-a-chip (SoC) circuits requires the integration of complex hardware/software components that are customized to efficiently execute a specific application. Nowadays, these components include many different embedded processors executing concurrent software tasks. In this paper, we present an object-based component interconnection model to represent both hardware and software components within a system architecture in a very high level of abstraction. This model is used in a design flow for automatic generation of hardware/software interfaces for SoC circuits. Design tools for automatic generation of embedded operating systems, hardware interfaces and associated device drivers are presented and evaluated using the results obtained with a VDSL application.     

Parallel Programming of Multi-processor SoC: A HW–SW Interface Perspective

For the design of classic computers the parallel programming concept is used to abstract HW/SW interfaces during high level specification of application software. The software is then adapted to existing multiprocessor platforms using a low level software layer that implements the programming model. Unlike classic computers, the design of heterogeneous MPSoC includes also building the processors and other kind of hardware components required to execute the software. In this case, the programming model hides both hardware and software refinements. This paper deals with parallel programming models to abstract both hardware and software interfaces in the case of heterogeneous MPSoC design. Different abstraction levels will be needed. For the long term, the use of higher level programming models will open new vistas for optimization and architecture exploration like CPU/RTOS tradeoffs.     

Simulation libraries for system-level design

Raising the level of design abstraction to achieve a system synthesis capability requires electronic design automation (EDA) tools for design capture, analysis and verification at the new level of abstraction, as well as tools for synthesis at the next lower level of abstraction. It is essential that simulation libraries exist that support the new toolset. In system synthesis, elements of the desired product functionality will be specified as combinations of functional primitives in a high-order language or as flowgraph representations. Implementation trade offs will require the designer to simulate the performance of these functions when implemented in ASICs, FPGAs, or software. Simulation will require extensive libraries of primitives and their performance characteristics on a wide variety of hardware and software implementations. The paper considers system synthesis and some problems in system-level simulation     

Evolutionary design of user interfaces for workflow information systems

In this paper we argue that user interface design should evolve from iterative to evolutionary in order to support the user interface development life cycle in a more flexible way. Evolutionary design consists of taking any input that informs to the lifecycle at any level of abstraction and its propagation through inferior and superior levels (vertical engineering) as well as the same level (horizontal engineering). This lifecycle is particularly appropriate when requirements are incomplete, partially unknown or to be discovered progressively. We exemplify this lifecycle by a methodology for developing user interfaces of workflow information systems. The methodology involves several models (i.e., task, process, workflow, domain, context of use) and steps. The methodology applies model-driven engineering to derive concrete user interfaces from a workflow model imported into a workflow management system in order to run the workflow. Instead of completing each model step by step, any model element is either derived from early requirements or collected in the appropriate model before being propagated in the subsequent steps. When more requirements are elicited, any new element is added at the appropriate level, consolidated with the already existing elements, and propagated to the subsequent levels. A workflow editor has been developed to support the methodology.     

Using the Semantic Web technologies in virtual engineering tools to create extensible interfaces

Ideas and tools developed for the Semantic Web can also be applied to and integrated with engineering tools and software. The ideas upon which the Semantic Web are founded, along with the technologies that are used to implement it, provide a platform on which virtual engineering tools and interfaces can be extended to create a web in which contextual information is readily accessible to engineers. When the Semantic Web and virtual engineering methods are fully realized, computer hardware and networking capabilities will work to provide information and tools to access information meaningfully. The question that must be answered today is: how will information be integrated in a manner that will allow commercial and proprietary software tools to remain separate while also being integrated so that the end user can control and query these tools with little to no knowledge of the tools’ implementation or inner-working details? The answer to this question will depend largely on the ability to implement open interfaces and schemas that can evolve over time as well as open source toolkits that enable development teams to collaborate at a high level. This paper discusses potential applications of the Semantic Web to explore these questions. In addition, specific capabilities being developed in VE-Suite are discussed.     

智能家庭控制系统接口访问机制研究

针对智能家庭控制系统,提出了基于中间通用适配层的接口访问机制,分离上层应用和底层硬件,将点对点的接口访问方式转化为总线式接口访问机制,并提供无缝集成底层网络和通信协议的接口.这种通用的接口访问机制将从根本上改变智能家庭控制系统的体系架构,使得核心控制单元能够非常灵活地满足用户应用需求和适配各种底层网络技术.     

Principles of Built-In-Test for Run-Time-Testability in Component-Based Software Systems

This paper examines the motivations and expectations of Built-In-Test (BIT) techniques for Run-Time-Testability (RTT) in component-based software systems. The difficulties associated with testing and integrating fully encapsulated components lead to a requirement for testing interfaces. The format of these interfaces is explored at a high level of abstraction, and some possibilities for Built-In-Test (BIT) are described. BIT is concerned with the detection of error conditions arising internally to a component, or arising from erroneous component interactions, and the propagation of these error conditions to a system component having responsibility for error handling and/or recovery. The implications for testability, reliability and maintainability are discussed, and it is concluded that BIT offers potential for improved product quality. Whilst the proposed approach is considered appropriate for a wide range of software systems, issues related to real-time systems, such as deadlock and timing constraints are of particular interest.     

An Efficient Migration to Model-driven Development (MDD)

Model-driven development envisions raising the abstraction level of software development. To fully realize this vision, technology-specific aspects must be completely hidden from developers. They produce only platform-independent models (PIM), which are automatically transformed into executable systems. To enable an efficient migration to MDD, we recommend taking advantage of concepts from software architectures, product line engineering and reverse engineering.     

The role of model checking in software engineering

Model checking is a formal verification technique. It takes an exhaustively strategy to check hardware circuits and network protocols against desired properties. Having been developed for more than three decades, model checking is now playing an important role in software engineering for verifying rather complicated software artifacts.This paper surveys the role of model checking in software engineering. In particular, we searched for the related literatures published at reputed conferences, symposiums, workshops, and journals, and took a survey of (1) various model checking techniques that can be adapted to software development and their implementations, and (2) the use of model checking at different stages of a software development life cycle. We observed that model checking is useful for software debugging, constraint solving, and malware detection, and it can help verify different types of software systems, such as object- and aspect-oriented systems, service-oriented applications, web-based applications, and GUI applications including safety- and mission-critical systems.The survey is expected to help human engineers understand the role of model checking in software engineering, and as well decide which model checking technique(s) and/or tool(s) are applicable for developing, analyzing and verifying a practical software system. For researchers, the survey also points out how model checking has been adapted to their research topics on software engineering and its challenges.     

Development of logical and technical architectures for automotive systems

This paper presents a modeling approach for the development of software for electronic control units in the automotive domain. The approach supports the development of two related architecture models in the overall development process: the logical architecture provides a graphical, quite abstract representation of a typically large set of automotive functions. On this abstraction level no design decisions are taken. The technical architecture provides a software and a hardware representation in separated views: the software architecture describes the software realization of functions as software components, whereas the hardware architecture models hardware ntities, on which the software components are deployed. Logical as well as technical architectures only model structural information, but no behavioural information. A tight integration of both architecture levels—on the conceptual and on the tool level—with related development phases such as requirements engineering, behaviour modeling, code generation as well as version and configuration management resulting in a seamless overall development process is presented. This architecture modeling approach has been developed within a safety-relevant project at BMW Group. Positive as well as negative experiences with the application of this approach are described.     

基于TinyOS的CC2420驱动组件的研究

首先介绍了nesC语言及专门面向传感器网络的TinyOS操作系统软件平台,然后阐述了网络节点的硬件模块功能特点及其接口电路,最后根据硬件抽象体系结构的原则,在TinyOS操作系统平台下,对CC2420无线收发模块驱动组件设计作了深入的研究,以组件的形式将其硬件功能封装成接口供上层软件调用,实现了对上层软件的硬件特征屏蔽...     

SDR核心框架SCA符合性测试工具的设计

SCA技术是美军目前正在开发的联合战术无线电系统所强制采用的系统顶层设计规范,代表了未来无线通信系统设计的发展方向。核心框架是SCA的核心软件部分,是对底层驱动和硬件的更高层次的抽象,它为应用层软件提供了开发接口和服务集合。为了便于测试核心框架的SCA符合性,防止不同研制单位研制出互相不兼容的SCA通信设备,提出了一种基于CORBA技术和SCA规范相结合实现的核心框架SCA符合性测试方法,并使用VC＋＋和ACE/TAO中间件设计了一款测试软件。结果表明,该测试软件可以灵活、直观地对核心框架进行SCA符合性测试。     

The architecture of virtual machines

A virtual machine can support individual processes or a complete system depending on the abstraction level where virtualization occurs. Some VMs support flexible hardware usage and software isolation, while others translate from one instruction set to another. Virtualizing a system or component -such as a processor, memory, or an I/O device - at a given abstraction level maps its interface and visible resources onto the interface and resources of an underlying, possibly different, real system. Consequently, the real system appears as a different virtual system or even as multiple virtual systems. Interjecting virtualizing software between abstraction layers near the HW/SW interface forms a virtual machine that allows otherwise incompatible subsystems to work together. Further, replication by virtualization enables more flexible and efficient and efficient use of hardware resources.     

Making sense of the abstraction hierarchy in the power plant domain

The paper discusses the abstraction hierarchy proposed by Rasmussen [(1986) Information processing and human-machine interaction, North-Holland] for design of human-machine interfaces for supervisory control. The purpose of the abstraction hierarchy is to represent a work domain by multiple levels of means-end and part-whole abstractions. It is argued in the paper that the abstraction hierarchy suffers from both methodological and conceptual problems. A cluster of selected problems are analyzed and illustrated by concrete examples from the power plant domain. It is concluded that the semantics of the means-end levels and their relations are vaguely defined and therefore should be improved by making more precise distinctions. Furthermore, the commitment to a fixed number of levels of means-end abstractions should be abandoned and more attention given to the problem of level identification in the model-building process. It is also pointed out that attempts to clarify the semantics of the abstraction hierarchy will invariably reduce the range of work domains where it can be applied.     

An open-source navigation system for micro aerial vehicles

This paper presents an open-source indoor navigation system for quadrotor micro aerial vehicles (MAVs), implemented in the ROS framework. The system requires a minimal set of sensors including a planar laser range-finder and an inertial measurement unit. We address the issues of autonomous control, state estimation, path-planning, and teleoperation, and provide interfaces that allow the system to seamlessly integrate with existing ROS navigation tools for 2D SLAM and 3D mapping. All components run in real time onboard the MAV, with state estimation and control operating at 1 kHz. A major focus in our work is modularity and abstraction, allowing the system to be both flexible and hardware-independent. All the software and hardware components which we have developed, as well as documentation and test data, are available online.     

Object-oriented programming for engineering software development

The representation of engineering systems in a manner suitable for computer processing is an important aspect of software development for computer aided engineering. The process of abstraction is a well-known technique for developing data representations. Objects are a mechanism for representing data using abstraction, and object-oriented languages are languages for writing programs to manipulate objects. The paper shows through examples the advantages of object-oriented programming for developing engineering software. Mathematical graphs are used as an abstraction for two problems: (1) sorting activities in a schedule and (2) ordering nodes and elements in a finite element mesh. Classes of objects are developed for generic graphs, activity procedence graphs, and graphs of elements meshes. Object-oriented program development leads to modular programs and a substantial reuse of code for the two problems.     

A product-line architecture for web service-based visual composition of web applications

A web service-based web application (WSbWA) is a collection of web services or reusable proven software parts that can be discovered and invoked using standard Internet protocols. The use of these web services in the development process of WSbWAs can help overcome many problems of software use, deployment and evolution. Although the cost-effective software engineering of WSbWAs is potentially a very rewarding area, not much work has been done to accomplish short time to market conditions by viewing and dealing with WSbWAs as software products that can be derived from a common infrastructure and assets with a captured specific abstraction in the domain. Both Product Line Engineering (PLE) and Agile Methods (AMs), albeit with different philosophies, are software engineering approaches that can significantly shorten the time to market and increase the quality of products. Using the PLE approach we built, at the domain engineering level, a WSbWA-specific lightweight product-line architecture and combined it, at the application engineering level, with an Agile Method that uses a domain-specific visual language with direct manipulation and extraction capabilities of web services to perform customization and calibration of a product or WSBWA for a specific customer. To assess the effectiveness of our approach we designed and implemented a tool that we used to investigate the return on investment of the activities related to PLE and AMs. Details of our proposed approach, the related tool developed, and the experimental study performed are presented in this article together with a discussion of planned directions of future work.     

一种基于混沌的软件水印算法框架及实现

针对现有软件水印算法中存在的一些不足,将反逆向工程技术和混沌系统与Easter Egg软件水印的思想相结合,提出了一个基于混沌的软件水印算法框架.该框架通过引入混沌系统,把水印信息散列编码到整个代码当中,以保护全部代码;通过引入反逆向工程技术来抵抗逆向工程攻击,算法框架与软硬件平台无关.在i386体系结构Windows平台下实现了该算法框架,并以该实现为例分析了水印的鲁棒性,讨论了水印的嵌入对程序性能的影响.分析表明,该算法可以有效地抵抗各种语义保持变换攻击,对逆向工程攻击具有较好的抵抗性,鲁棒性较高.