Élaboration d'une méthodologie de conception des systèmes embarqués basée sur la transformation du modèle fonctionnel de haut niveau vers le prototype virtuel

Abstract

The complexity of embedded systems continues to rise rapidly due to technological advances and industrial demand for electronics powerful enough to implement increasingly sophisticated software applications. High-quality designs are becoming increasingly necessary in order to meet the demand for embedded systems that are competitive in terms of reliability, safety and robustness. In order to meet the challenge of improving embedded system design and managing the increasing complexity, engineers are turning to model-based engineering. But often validation of traditional model-based design generally considers functional and timing requirements only, and ignores target platform execution constraints. In this paper a new modeling framework is proposed. It aims to simplify the design process by offering a trade-off between design abstraction and accuracy of results through performance analysis. High and low levels of abstraction are thus bridged in the same design flow so that architectural exploration and refinement can be performed at different levels. The proposed approach combine the advantages of model-based engineering méthodologies using the AADL language and virtual prototyping based on virtual platform environments Space Studio. Our methodology uses a tool chain transformation to bridge the gap between high-level models and the virtual execution platform to allow more accurate design space exploration. The modeling language AADL is used to describe the system behavior of the Embedded software at a high abstraction level, while the virtual platform environment is used to execute software system tasks on hardware resources, and allow performances validation and refinement based on an architectural exploration of the hardware platform. The proposed framework is validated using an MJPEG video decoder application. Experimental results show how virtual prototyping allows the system architect to fine-tune performances. Many candidate architectures have been explored to find the better solution. So the execution speed has been visibly increased and the time taken to complete the simulation of the system was reduced by 81.86 %. Moreover the processor utilization rate has decreased significantly, which may thus reduce the rate of power consumption by the hardware resources. Finally system performance has improved in term of processing speed 12 times comparing to initial candidate architecture. Within the framework of this project a paper was published for ERTS 2014 conference (Benyoussef et al., Février 2014) This work presents the research context and model based design problematic, the modeling methodology developed and also our experiment with an MJPEG video decoder application.

Date	9 Jun 2014
Original language	French
Awarding Institution	École de technologie supérieure
Supervisor	Jean-François Boland (Supervisor) & Gabriela Nicolescu (Co-supervisor)