Book Image

The Complete Edition - Software Engineering for Real-Time Systems

By : Jim Cooling
Book Image

The Complete Edition - Software Engineering for Real-Time Systems

By: Jim Cooling

Overview of this book

From air traffic control systems to network multimedia systems, real-time systems are everywhere. The correctness of the real-time system depends on the physical instant and the logical results of the computations. This book provides an elaborate introduction to software engineering for real-time systems, including a range of activities and methods required to produce a great real-time system. The book kicks off by describing real-time systems, their applications, and their impact on software design. You will learn the concepts of software and program design, as well as the different types of programming, software errors, and software life cycles, and how a multitasking structure benefits a system design. Moving ahead, you will learn why diagrams and diagramming plays a critical role in the software development process. You will practice documenting code-related work using Unified Modeling Language (UML), and analyze and test source code in both host and target systems to understand why performance is a key design-driver in applications. Next, you will develop a design strategy to overcome critical and fault-tolerant systems, and learn the importance of documentation in system design. By the end of this book, you will have sound knowledge and skills for developing real-time embedded systems.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
Preface
15
Glossary of terms

9.6 Model-Based Design (MBD)

9.6.1 MBD versus MDA

Model-Based Design should more correctly be called Model-Based System Design because the emphasis is on the system, not software aspects. This feature is shown in Figure 9.55, which also highlights other key differences between MBD and MDA.

Figure 9.55: Comparing MBD with MDA

MDA takes a software-centric development approach, where the software is considered to be THE system as shown in Figure 9.56. The models produced as part of this development process are essentially static ones (although they may describe dynamical operation using, for example, state models). MBD, in contrast, considers software to be just one part of a complete system. Further, system requirements and objectives define the (required) functionality and behavior of the software. In other words, the design is driven by the needs of the system, not the software. Another key factor of MBD is the development of dynamic models of behavior,...