A Framework for Rapid Application Development of Distributed Embedded Real-Time Systems

There is a strong need for a system design approach for distributed embedded real-time systems with supporting tools that reduces complexity and development time. In real-time systems timing constraints should function as a driving force throughout the design process, instead of employing temporal constraints only at the starting and end point of the design process (i. e. within the specification and the validation of the implementation). We describe a platform based design methodology aiming at safety-critical distributed real-time applications. This methodology incorporates the idea of the platform-independent and platform-specific model of OMG’s Model Driven Architecture. For functional design activities at the application space, the framework employs the MATLAB/Simulink tool suite. The framework offers dedicated blocksets for modeling the communication between nodes of a distributed time-triggered system, while taking the temporal behavior of communication and processing activities into account. Automatic code generation maps this model onto the platform space. The platform space comprises a real-time Linux variant as the operating systems and the Time-Triggered Architecture as the communication system. Keywords— Real-Time Systems, Real-Time Linux, Platform-based Design, Model Driven Architecture, Matlab/Simulink.