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

6.2 The Essentials of Software Diagrams

6.2.1 Fundamentals

What is the fundamental purpose of software design diagrams? In a very simple way, they can be seen as a way to bridge the gap between what is wanted (the problem) and what is provided (the solution), Figure 6.14. In fact, the total design process can be viewed as a two-stage activity (Figure 6.15). The diagram sits in the middle of this, serving two groups of people. From the point of view of problem translation, diagrams must meet the needs of the user. That is, the design approach must be stated in terms of the problem, not its solution; the diagrams must be easy for the users to understand. In most cases, they won't be software engineers, so there's not much point in sending them a pile of computer print-outs. Finally, it must be easy to produce and modify such diagrams to encourage their use in the translation stage.

The information shown by the diagram is then used as an input to the program production...