Reaping the benefits of architectural modeling in embedded design

Juha-Pekka Tolvanen and Janne Luoma, Metacase and De-Jiu Chen, KTH

Software-enabled features in automotive and other embedded systems continue to grow in size and complexity. This growth calls for corresponding improvements in development approaches and tools if we are to ensure cost and time efficiency throughout the entire lifecycle. Notable bottlenecks include the integration of different subsystems and the consolidation of various engineering aspects, where tool support is becoming ever more important.

Integrating high-level development information across tools is only possible with a model-based approach to system development and quality management. For architecture models of embedded software systems, such an approach not only captures the software functionality, but also its corresponding engineering concerns, such as requirements, resource deployment, timing and safety, variability, etc.

The focus is raised from the implementation details of individual features to the design of the entire system as an integrated whole. By formalizing architectural artifacts and clarifying the formalisms used, a model-based approach also makes it possible to ensure the consistency and completeness of system descriptions, offer early predictions about system behaviors and properties, and enable formal design space exploration and optimization.

In this article we present our experiences on how companies can ease the transition to model-based architecture design and begin reaping its benefits. We take automotive E&E (Electric & Electronic) systems as an example here, but the principles and tool support are not limited to the automotive domain.

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