Search

Developing Cyber-Physical Systems requires methods and tools to support simulation and verification of hybrid (both continuous and discrete) models. The Acumen modeling and simulation language is an open source testbed for exploring the design space of what rigorous-but-practical next-generation tools can deliver to developers of Cyber-Physical Systems. Like verification tools, a design goal for Acumen is to provide rigorous results. Like simulation tools, it aims to be intuitive, practical, and scalable. However, it is far from evident whether these two goals can be achieved simultaneously. This paper explains the primary design goals for Acumen, the core challenges that must be addressed in order to achieve these goals, the "agile research method" taken by the project, the steps taken to realize these goals, the key lessons learned, and the emerging language design. © ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering 2016. This work was supported by US NSF award CPS-1136099, the Swedish Knowledge Foundation (KK), The Center for Research on Embedded Systems (CERES), and VINNOVA (Dnr. 2011-01819).

Manycore architectures are gaining attention as a means to meet the performance and power demands of high-performance embedded systems. However, their widespread adoption is sometimes constrained by the need for mastering proprietary programming languages that are low-level and hinder portability. We propose the use of the concurrent programming language occam-pi as a high-level language for programming an emerging class of manycore architectures. We show how to map occam-pi programs to the manycore architecture Platform 2012 P2012. We describe the techniques used to translate the salient features of the language to the native programming model of the P2012. We present the results from a case study on a representative algorithm in the domain of real-time image processing: a complex algorithm for corner detection called Features from Accelerated Segment Test FAST. Our results show that the occam-pi program is much shorter, is easier to adapt and has a competitive performance when compared to versions programmed in the native programming model of P2012 and in OpenCL.

Accurate programming is a practical approach to producing high quality programs. It combines ideas from test-automation, test-driven development, agile programming, and other state of the art software development methods. In addition to building on approaches that have proven effective in practice, it emphasizes concepts that help programmers sharpen their understanding of both the problems they are solving and the solutions they come up with. This is achieved by encouraging programmers to think about programs in terms of properties., In Proceedings DSL 2011, arXiv:1109.0323

Network protocols today play a major role in embedded software for industrial automation, with constant efforts to adapt existing device software to new emerging standards. In earlier work, we have proposed a compilation-based approach using a domain-specific language, Protege, which automatically generates protocol stack implementations in C from modular high-level descriptions. In this paper, we provide a case study of the Protege language in an industrial setting. We have implemented the Modbus protocol over TCP/IP and over serial line, and tested it using an industrial gateway. Our implementation demonstrates Protege's advantages for software productivity, easy maintenance and code reuse, and it achieves many desirable properties of industrial embedded network software.

Protocol stack specifications are well-structured documents that follow a number of conventions and notations that have proven very useful for the design and dissemination of communication protocols. Protocol stack implementations on the other hand, are done in low-level languages, using error-prone programming techniques resulting in programs that are difficult to relate to the specifications, difficult to maintain, modify, extend and reuse. To overcome these problems we propose a domain-specific language that provides abstractions close to the notations used in protocol specifications. From descriptions in our language we generate C programs that can be integrated with other systems software. The language provides constructs to describe packet formats, including physical layout, constraints and dependencies. It also provides constructs for state machines and for layering protocols into stacks. Experiments show that the C programs we generate are comparable in performance and binary size to hand-crafted C programs.

This paper describes a domain-specific language embedded in Haskell, IPS, for the implementation of protocol stacks for embedded systems. IPS profits from Haskell’s features and generates C implementations by embedded compilation.

Network software is typically organized according toa layered architecture that is well understood. However, writingcorrect and efficient code that conforms with the architecture stillremains a problem. To overcome this problem we propose to usea domain specific language based approach. The architecturalconstraints are captured in a domain specific notation that can beused as a source for automatic program generation. Conformancewith the architecture is thus assured by construction. Knowledgefrom the domain allows us to generate efficient code. In addition,this approach enforces reuse of both code and designs, one ofthe major concerns in software architecture. In this paper, weillustrate our approach with PADDLE, a tool that generates packetprocessing code from packet descriptions. To describe packets weuse a domain specific language of dependent types that includespacket overlays. From the description we generate C librariesfor packet processing that are easy to integrate with other partsof the code. We include an evaluation of our tool., ©2009 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.