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

2.2 Software Errors

2.2.1 Overview

In this text, a software error is defined to be "any feature of a program that produces a system malfunction." This is a very broad definition and really quite unfair to software developers. In many instances of system misbehavior, the code is blameless; however, we still talk of "faulty software." What it does, though, is emphasize that it isn't sufficient to eliminate errors at the software design stage; other factors need to be taken into account (Figure 2.3). These are explored further in more detail.

2.2.2 System Design Errors

System design takes place right at the frontend of a project. Quite often, software engineers are excluded from this stage. Many system designers have the attitude of "well, we'll go out and buy a box to control the plant (once we've worked out how to put it together)." Mistakes made here usually show only when system trials begin (or, worse still, when the system is...