Functional Validation of AADL Models via Model Transformation to SystemC with ATL

6 pagesInternational audienceIn this paper, we put into action an ATL model transformation in order to automatically generate SystemC models from AADL models. The AADL models represent electronic systems to be embedded into FPGAs. Our contribution allows for an early analytical estimation of energetic needs and a rapid SystemC simulation before implementation. The transformation has been tested to simulate an existing video image processing system embedded into a Xilinx Virtex5 FPGA

Expérimentation d'une suite d'outils pour automatiser le passage d'une conception basée sur un modèle vers la réalisation d'une implémentation, en passant par l'exploration architecturale

RÉSUMÉ Aujourd’hui, les systèmes embarqués sont de plus en plus complexes à développer surtout s’il s’agit de systèmes temps réel. Ces projets intègrent des technologies à la fine pointe de la recherche, qui sont compliquées à mettre en place. La complexité de conception de ces systèmes repose sur la nécessité de trouver un équilibre entre la puissance de calcul requise, la surface de carte et le nombre de ressources matérielles utilisées, ou encore la consommation du circuit. En ajoutant à tout cela des temps de mise en marché de plus en plus stricts pour ce genre de systèmes, les besoins d’outils et de flots de conception efficaces deviennent de plus en plus pressants. Dans cette optique, de nombreux langages de spécification de système ont été mis au point. Ils sont échelonnés à différents niveaux d’abstraction allant des langages de haut niveau d’abstraction comme sysML ou AADL jusqu’au bas niveau RTL en passant par des spécifications pour ESL (Electronic system level) comme SystemC. Ces langages sont liés à des méthodologies basées sur les modèles. Le projet de recherche présenté dans ce mémoire consiste à mettre en avant une méthodologie de conception d’un système embarqué. Cette méthodologie s’illustre au travers d’un flot de conception utilisant le langage de description de système AADL ainsi que la plateforme de codesign SpaceStudio. Elle vise à développer en parallèle des applications logicielles ainsi que les plateformes matérielles sur lesquelles ces applications doivent s’exécuter. Le défi de ce projet consiste donc à réaliser la jonction entre le langage AADL et la plateforme SpaceStudio. L’outil chargé de réaliser cette jonction compile du code AADL et génère un script python. Ce script est lu par l’API du logiciel SpaceStudio qui permet de générer un projet sur sa plateforme de coconception. L’outil créé durant ce projet et nommé AADL2Space est testé à travers un exemple de modèle AADL disponible sur Internet. Par la suite, une application de décodage vidéo MJPEG est utilisée pour illustrer le flot de conception. Un modèle AADL de cette application a été développé afin de fournir la description architecturale du système. La partie applicative du système a été codée en C et associée au modèle AADL. Ainsi, un système complet est compilé par AADL2Space pour ainsi générer un projet SpaceStudio. Une fois le projet instancié sur la plateforme de coconception, celui-ci est simulé et analysé afin d’obtenir des métriques permettant de valider ou non l’architecture. De cette façon, plusieurs architectures sont testées afin de satisfaire les contraintes d’ordonnancement temps réel, de taux d’utilisation des processeurs, d’utilisation des ressources matérielles, etc. L’architecture choisie est enfin synthétisée pour être implémentée sur carte. Ce projet a conduit à l’écriture d’un article de conférence à EEE international Symposium on Rapid System Prototyping (RSP)----------ABSTRACT Nowadays, embedded systems are increasingly complex to design. These system’s design complexity is based on the need to find a balance between the required power, the used area on ship and hardware resources, and the system consumption. This issue mainly occurs for real-time systems. For such systems, times to market are more and more demanding. Consequently, new tools and design flows are definitely needed. This project bridges and validates two of these technologies. To reach our goal, numerous system description languages and libraries have been worked out. They have different abstraction levels from high abstraction level languages as SysML or AADL, to low level abstraction RTL, through ESL (Electronic system level) as systemC. The aim of the research project introduced in this work is to show an embedded system design methodology. This methodology is illustrated through a design flow using the description language AADL and the SpaceStudioTM HW/SW co-design platform. It targets a parallel design of software applications and hardware platform on which applications will be executed. This project’s challenge is to fill the gap between the description language AADL and SpaceStudio platform. SpaceStudio is a scriptable tool. All the graphic manipulations can also be achieved through a Python script. The proposed tool filling this gap acts as a compiler of an AADL code and generate a Python script that can be used as an input description of SpaceStudio. The created tool called AADL2Space is tested thanks to an AADL model example available on Internet. Next, an MJPEG video decoder application is used to illustrate the design flow. An AADL model of this application has been designed to provide the system’s architectural description. The software part of the system has been coded in C language and bound to the AADL model. Thereby, a complete system is compiled by the designed tool and generated as a SpaceStudio project. Once the project has been instantiated on the co-design platform, it is simulated and analyzed to validate metric performances. Different architecture configurations are tested to meet system’s constraints as real time scheduling, processor’s use rate, use of hardware resources, etc. The chosen architecture configuration is finally synthetized to be implemented on a FPGA

Foundations of Multi-Paradigm Modelling for Cyber-Physical Systems

This open access book coherently gathers well-founded information on the fundamentals of and formalisms for modelling cyber-physical systems (CPS). Highlighting the cross-disciplinary nature of CPS modelling, it also serves as a bridge for anyone entering CPS from related areas of computer science or engineering. Truly complex, engineered systems—known as cyber-physical systems—that integrate physical, software, and network aspects are now on the rise. However, there is no unifying theory nor systematic design methods, techniques or tools for these systems. Individual (mechanical, electrical, network or software) engineering disciplines only offer partial solutions. A technique known as Multi-Paradigm Modelling has recently emerged suggesting to model every part and aspect of a system explicitly, at the most appropriate level(s) of abstraction, using the most appropriate modelling formalism(s), and then weaving the results together to form a representation of the system. If properly applied, it enables, among other global aspects, performance analysis, exhaustive simulation, and verification. This book is the first systematic attempt to bring together these formalisms for anyone starting in the field of CPS who seeks solid modelling foundations and a comprehensive introduction to the distinct existing techniques that are multi-paradigmatic. Though chiefly intended for master and post-graduate level students in computer science and engineering, it can also be used as a reference text for practitioners

Comparison of six ways to extend the scope of Cheddar to AADL v2 with Osate

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Extending relational model transformations to better support the verification of increasingly autonomous systems

Over the past decade the capabilities of autonomous systems have been steadily increasing. Unmanned systems are moving from systems that are predominantly remotely operated, to systems that include a basic decision making capability. This is a trend that is expected to continue with autonomous systems making decisions in increasingly complex environments, based on more abstract, higher-level missions and goals. These changes have significant implications for how these systems should be designed and engineered. Indeed, as the goals and tasks these systems are to achieve become more abstract, and the environments they operate in become more complex, are current approaches to verification and validation sufficient? Domain Specific Modelling is a key technology for the verification of autonomous systems. Verifying these systems will ultimately involve understanding a significant number of domains. This includes goals/tasks, environments, systems functions and their associated performance. Relational Model Transformations provide a means to utilise, combine and check models for consistency across these domains. In this thesis an approach that utilises relational model transformation technologies for systems verification, Systems MDD, is presented along with the results of a series of trials conducted with an existing relational model transformation language (QVT-Relations). These trials identified a number of problems with existing model transformation languages, including poorly or loosely defined semantics, differing interpretations of specifications across different tools and the lack of a guarantee that a model transformation would generate a model that was compliant with its associated meta-model. To address these problems, two related solvers were developed to assist with realising the Systems MDD approach. The first solver, MMCS, is concerned with partial model completion, where a partial model is defined as a model that does not fully conform with its associated meta-model. It identifies appropriate modifications to be made to a partial model in order to bring it into full compliance. The second solver, TMPT, is a relational model transformation engine that prioritises target models. It considers multiple interpretations of a relational transformation specification, chooses an interpretation that results in a compliant target model (if one exists) and, optionally, maximises some other attribute associated with the model. A series of experiments were conducted that applied this to common transformation problems in the published literature