Y-chart based system design: a discussion on approaches

Abstract

Embedded systems are a source of technology that facilitates our modern lifestyle. In order to do so, they tend to increase in complexity as well as integrate in are day-to-day activities. To meet the market's expectations on technological improvement, time-to-market objectives for introducing innovative embedded systems are shorter than ever. Over the last decade, model-based design has been a subject of great interest as a means to accelerate the design of embedded systems. The Y-chart paradigm is a principal approach to model-based embedded system design. Despite the simplicity and conciseness of this paradigm, it has been implemented in several di®erent ways by various methodologies. This variety in implementation designs is due to the particular emphasis a methodology puts on the di®erent steps of the paradigm (application modeling, platform modeling, mapping, analysis and synthesis). This article explores this variety by examining and comparing three Y-chart based design methodologies: Metropolis, the Distributed Operation Layer incorporating Modular Performance Analysis and the Y-chart variant of the Software/Hardware Engineering methodology. These methodologies have been chosen because they: cover a broad domain of applications, have been developed on a relatively long period of time and are representative of typical Y chart approaches. Moreover, these implementations of the paradigm present interesting design approaches which are worth comparin