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

Summary
This combined thesis describes a system level method for co-specification and design
of distributed reactive real-time hardware/software systems. Examples of such systems
are tele/data communication networks and switches, industrial control systems,
embedded systems and electronic consumer products. Nowadays, the complexity of
such systems has grown to such an extent that their development is a risky enterprise.
It is difficult to cope with both complexity and high demands on quality, robustness,
safety and reliability. Functionality is implemented as a mix of concurrent hardware and
software modules that have very complex interactions. It is impossible to design such
systems rapidly enough without adequate methods and tools. In addition, there is a lack
of adequate system level approaches. Therefore the research field of hardware/software
co-specification has been explored. It aims at specification and design on system level.
It is complementary to hardware/software co-design, which aims at implementation
level hardware/software co-simulation.
This thesis introduces the method Software/Hardware Engineering (SHE) incorporating
a framework for design activities, and a formal description language called POOSL (Parallel
Object-Oriented Specification Language). Starting from informal Object-Oriented
analysis and architecture design, SHE produces rigorous behaviour and architecture
descriptions. In contrast to informal methods, SHE has the potentials for simulation,
formal verification, design structure transformation, and automatic translation for implementation.
This thesis focuses on the method base rather than on the method itself.
The method is based on:
the event/response approach of Structured Analysis and Structured Design methods;
the message passing and classification approach of Object-Oriented analysis and
design methods;
concepts for formal description and proven transformations of system structure;
modelling of concurrent processes with various forms of communication;
executable dynamic behaviour description based on a language with a formal
semantics;
a multidisciplinary approach.
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