Specification of Reactive Hardware/Software Systems - Electronic ...

11.5 Extended Specification Modelling 369
mechanical functional parts, etcetera.
Depending on the type of system, dedicated hardware can be developed. There is a
wide variety of technologies available of:
ASIC 1 technologies, such as Standard Cell and Gate Arrays;
Programmable Logic Devices, such as FPGAs 2 ;
processor cores and memory blocks available in ASICs an FPGAs;
general-purpose processors;
multimedia processors, image processors;
digital signal processors;
special architecture computers, such as transputers;
embedded controllers;
communication processors.
Software can be implemented using various:
languages;
general purpose operating systems;
special purpose operating systems such as real-time operating systems;
drivers of peripherals.
For software there is a variety of completely different paradigms. We choose an objectoriented
approach for system analysis and therefore an implementation in an objectoriented
language will in general raise less mapping problems than a language from
another paradigm.
Complex systems are often hybrid. They combine a variety of technologies. This
may include the use of paradigms such as fuzzy logic, neural networks and artificial
intelligence. The mapping of POOSL behaviour descriptions onto these very specific
implementations will not be straightforward. Our method does not offer the appropriate
concepts that enable a straightforward mapping to any technology. The modelling of
hybrid systems can be performed by restricting the description of ’exotic’ modules
to an abstract behaviour description. Dedicated tools must be used for the further
development of detailed internal behaviour.
1 ASIC = Application Specific Integrated Circuit.
2 FPGA = Field Programmable Gate Array.