What the experts have to say about Model-Based Testing for Embedded Systems

"This book is exactly what is needed at the exact right time in this fast-growing area. From its beginnings over 10 years ago of deriving tests from UML statecharts, model-based testing has matured into a topic with both breadth and depth. Testing embedded systems is a natural application of MBT, and this book hits the nail exactly on the head. Numerous topics are presented clearly, thoroughly, and concisely in this cutting-edge book. The authors are world-class leading experts in this area and teach us well-used and validated techniques, along with new ideas for solving hard problems.

"It is rare that a book can take recent research advances and present them in a form ready for practical use, but this book accomplishes that and more. I am anxious to recommend this in my consulting and to teach a new class to my students."

Dr. Jeff Offutt, professor of software engineering, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA

"This handbook is the best resource I am aware of on the automated testing of embedded systems. It is thorough, comprehensive, and authoritative. It covers all important technical and scientific aspects but also provides highly interesting insights into the state of practice of model-based testing for embedded systems."

Dr. Lionel C. Briand, IEEE Fellow, Simula Research Laboratory, Lysaker, Norway, and professor at the University of Oslo, Norway

"As model-based testing is entering the mainstream, such a comprehensive and intelligible book is a must-read for anyone looking for more information about improved testing methods for embedded systems. Illustrated with numerous aspects of these techniques from many contributors, it gives a clear picture of what the state of the art is today."

Dr. Bruno Legeard, CTO of Smartesting, professor of Software Engineering at the University of Franche-Comt, Besan on, France, and co-author of Practical Model-Based Testing

This book is structured in a practical, example-driven, manner. The use of VHDL for constructing logic synthesisers is one of the aims of the book; the second is the application of the tools to the design process. Worked examples, questions and answers are provided together with do and don'ts of good practice. An appendix on logic design the source code are available free of charge over the Internet.

Functional verification remains one of the single biggest challenges in the development of complex system-on-chip (SoC) devices. Despite the introduction of successive new technologies, the gap between design capability and verification confidence continues to widen. The biggest problem is that these diverse new technologies have led to a proliferation of verification point tools, most with their own languages and methodologies. Fortunately, a solution is at hand. SystemVerilog is a unified language that serves both design and verification engineers by including RTL design constructs, assertions and a rich set of verification constructs. SystemVerilog is an industry standard that is well supported by a wide range of verification tools and platforms. A single language fosters the development of a unified simulation-based verification tool or platform. Consolidation of point tools into a unified platform and convergence to a unified language enable the development of a unified verification methodology that can be used on a wide range of SoC projects. ARM and Synopsys have worked together to define just such a methodology in the SystemVerilog Verification Methodology Manual (VMM). their customers. The SystemVerilog VMM is a blueprint for verification success, guiding SoC teams in building a reusable verification environment taking full advantage of design-for-verification techniques, constrained-random stimulus generation, coverage-driven verification, formal verification and other advanced technologies to help solve their current and future verification problems. This book is appropriate for anyone involved in the design or verification of a complex chip or anyone who would like to know more about the capabilities of SystemVerilog. Following the SystemVerilog VMM will give SoC development teams and project managers the confidence needed to tape out a complex design, secure in the knowledge that the chip will function correctly in the real world.

The objective of this book is to bring together contributions by eminent researchers from industry and academia who specialize in the currently separate study and application of the key aspects of integration. The state of knowledge on integration and collaboration models and methods is reviewed, followed by an agenda for needed research that has been generated by the participants. The book is the result of a NATO Advanced Research Workshop on "Integration: Information and Collaboration Models" that took place at II Ciocco, Italy, during June 1993. Significant developments and research projects have been occurring internationally in a major effort to integrate increasingly complex systems. On one hand, advancements in computer technology and computing theories provide better, more timely, information. On of users and clients, and the the other hand, the geographic and organizational distribution proliferation of computers and communication, lead to an explosion of information and to the demand for integration. Two important examples of interest are computer integrated manufacturing and enterprises (CIM/E) and concurrent engineering (CE). CIM/E is the collection of computer technologies such as CNC, CAD, CAM. robotics and computer integrated engineering that integrate all the enterprise activities for competitiveness and timely response to changes. Concurrent engineering is the complete life-cycle approach to engineering of products. systems. and processes including customer requirements, design. planning. costing. service and recycling. In CIM/E and in CE, computer based information is the key to integration.

It is recognized that formal design and verification methods are an important requirement for the attainment of high quality system designs. The field has evolved enormously during the last few years, resulting in the fact that formal design and verification methods are nowadays supported by several tools, both commercial and academic. If different tools and users are to generate and read the same language then it is necessary that the same semantics is assigned by them to all constructs and elements of the language. The current IEEE standard VHDL language reference manual (LRM) tries to define VHDL as well as possible in a descriptive way, explaining the semantics in English. But rigor and clarity are very hard to maintain in a semantics defined in this way, and that has already given rise to many misconceptions and contradictory interpretations. Formal Semantics for VHDL is the first book that puts forward a cohesive set of semantics for the VHDL language. The chapters describe several semantics each based on a different underlying formalism: two of them use Petri nets as target language, and two of them higher order logic. Two use functional concepts, and finally another uses the concept of evolving algebras. Formal Semantics for VHDL is essential reading for researchers in formal methods and can be used as a text for an advanced course on the subject.

The TransNav 2011 Symposium held at the Gdynia Maritime University, Poland in June 2011 has brought together a wide range of participants from all over the world. The program has offered a variety of contributions, allowing to look at many aspects of the navigational safety from various different points of view. Topics presented and discussed at the Symposium were: navigation, safety at sea, sea transportation, education of navigators and simulator-based training, sea traffic engineering, ship's manoeuvrability, integrated systems, electronic charts systems, satellite, radio-navigation and anti-collision systems and many others. This book is part of a series of six volumes and provides an overview of Methods and Algorithms in Navigation and is addressed to scientists and professionals involved in research and development of navigation, safety of navigation and sea transportation.

Polymer translocation occurs in many biological and biotechnological phenomena where electrically charged polymer molecules move through narrow spaces in crowded environments. Unraveling the rich phenomenology of polymer translocation requires a grasp of modern concepts of polymer physics and polyelectrolyte behavior. Polymer Translocation discusses universal features of polymer translocations and summarizes the key concepts of polyelectrolyte structures, electrolyte solutions, ionic flow, mobility of charged macromolecules, polymer capture by pores, and threading of macromolecules through pores.

With approximately 150 illustrations and 850 equations, the book:

• Avoids heavy mathematics
• Uses examples to illustrate the richness of the phenomenon
• Introduces the entropic barrier idea behind polymer translocation
• Outlines conceptual components necessary for a molecular understanding of polymer translocation
• Provides mathematical formulas for the various quantities pertinent to polymer translocation

The challenge in understanding the complex behavior of translocation of polyelectrolyte molecules arises from three long-range forces due to chain connectivity, electrostatic interactions, and hydrodynamic interactions. Polymer Translocation provides an overview of fundamentals, established experimental facts, and important concepts necessary to understand polymer translocation. Readers will gain detailed strategies for applying these concepts and formulas to the design of new experiments.

A quality-driven design and verification flow for digital systems is developed and presented in Quality-Driven SystemC Design. Two major enhancements characterize the new flow: First, dedicated verification techniques are integrated which target the different levels of abstraction. Second, each verification technique is complemented by an approach to measure the achieved verification quality. The new flow distinguishes three levels of abstraction (namely system level, top level and block level) and can be incorporated in existing approaches. After reviewing the preliminary concepts, in the following chapters the three levels for modeling and verification are considered in detail. At each level the verification quality is measured. In summary, following the new design and verification flow a high overall quality results.

In the information highway age Just-In-Time Systems--JITS--are becoming increasingly visible: customers want to purchase rather than develop customized computing systems and they want these systems now. JITS will allow for developing systems at the right time, in the right place, and at the right price to address the right needs. This is promoted by covenant relationships between customer and supplier; JITS developers recognize that all system development projects and their maintenance have commonalities. They can apply technical, operational, and managerial approaches to similar problems--the managemant structure or system components of a project, for example, may be applicable to similar projects and follow similar lifecycles. JITS developers, therefore, avoid reinventing the wheel.

JITS will not appear overnight; its adoption will only come through evolution, not revolution. This incremental growth does not, however, imply that it's not revolutionary in substance. Managers, designers, programmers, engineers, analysts, planners, librarians, quality assurance specialists, customers, users, and suppliers of computing systems can benefit from this book.

Embedded systems encompass a variety of hardware and software components which perform specific functions in host systems, for example, satellites, washing machines, hand-held telephones and automobiles. Embedded systems have become increasingly digital with a non-digital periphery (analog power) and therefore, both hardware and software codesign are relevant. The vast majority of computers manufactured are used in such systems. They are called embedded' to distinguish them from standard mainframes, workstations, and PCs. Athough the design of embedded systems has been used in industrial practice for decades, the systematic design of such systems has only recently gained increased attention. Advances in microelectronics have made possible applications that would have been impossible without an embedded system design. Embedded System Applications describes the latest techniques for embedded system design in a variety of applications. This also includes some of the latest software tools for embedded system design. Applications of embedded system design in avionics, satellites, radio astronomy, space and control systems are illustrated in separate chapters. Finally, the book contains chapters related to industrial best-practice in embedded system design. Embedded System Applications will be of interest to researchers and designers working in the design of embedded systems for industrial applications.

Advanced research on the description of distributed systems and on design calculi for software and hardware is presented in this volume. Distinguished researchers give an overview of the latest state of the art.

This book represents an attempt to treat three aspects of digital systems, design, prototyping and customization, in an integrated manner using two major technologies: VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHDL) as a modeling and specification tool, and Field-Programmable Logic Devices (FPLDs) as an implementation technology. They together make a very powerful combination for complex digital systems rapid design and prototyping as the important steps towards manufacturing, or, in the case of feasible quantities, they also provide fast system manufacturing. Combining these two technologies makes possible implementation of very complex digital systems at the desk. VHDL has become a standard tool to capture features of digital systems in a form of behavioral, dataflow or structural models providing a high degree of flexibility. When augmented by a good simulator, VHDL enables extensive verification of features of the system under design, reducing uncertainties at the latter phases of design process. As such, it becomes an unavoidable modeling tool to model digital systems at various levels of abstraction.

Analog Behavioral Modeling With The Verilog-A Language provides the IC designer with an introduction to the methodologies and uses of analog behavioral modeling with the Verilog-A language. In doing so, an overview of Verilog-A language constructs as well as applications using the language are presented. In addition, the book is accompanied by the Verilog-A Explorer IDE (Integrated Development Environment), a limited capability Verilog-A enhanced SPICE simulator for further learning and experimentation with the Verilog-A language. This book assumes a basic level of understanding of the usage of SPICE-based analog simulation and the Verilog HDL language, although any programming language background and a little determination should suffice. From the Foreword: Verilog-A is a new hardware design language (HDL) for analog circuit and systems design. Since the mid-eighties, Verilog HDL has been used extensively in the design and verification of digital systems. However, there have been no analogous high-level languages available for analog and mixed-signal circuits and systems. Verilog-A provides a new dimension of design and simulation capability for analog electronic systems. Previously, analog simulation has been based upon the SPICE circuit simulator or some derivative of it. Digital simulation is primarily performed with a hardware description language such as Verilog, which is popular since it is easy to learn and use. Making Verilog more worthwhile is the fact that several tools exist in the industry that complement and extend Verilog's capabilities ... Behavioral Modeling With the Verilog-A Language provides a good introduction and starting place for students and practicing engineers with interest in understanding this new level of simulation technology. This book contains numerous examples that enhance the text material and provide a helpful learning tool for the reader. The text and the simulation program included can be used for individual study or in a classroom environment ...' Dr. Thomas A. DeMassa, Professor of Engineering, Arizona State University

Service design is the activity of planning and organizing people, infrastructure, communication and material components of a service in order to improve its quality and the interaction between service provider and customers. It is now a growing field of both practice and academic research. Designing for Service brings together a wide range of international contributors to map the field of service design and identify key issues for practitioners and researchers such as identity, ethics and accountability. Designing for Service aims to problematize the field in order to inform a more critical debate within service design, thereby supporting its development beyond the pure methodological discussions that currently dominate the field. The contributors to this innovative volume consider the practice of service design, ethical challenges designers may encounter, and the new spaces opened up by the advent of modern digital technologies.

For courses in engineering and technical management System architecture is the study of early decision making in complex systems. This text teaches how to capture experience and analysis about early system decisions, and how to choose architectures that meet stakeholder needs, integrate easily, and evolve flexibly. With case studies written by leading practitioners, from hybrid cars to communications networks to aircraft, this text showcases the science and art of system architecture.

Currently employed at STMicroelectronics, Transactional-Level Modeling (TLM) puts forward a novel SoC design methodology beyond RTL with measured improvements of productivity and first time silicon success.

The SystemC consortium has published the official TLM development kit in May 2005 to standardize this modeling technique. The library is flexible enough to model components and systems at many different levels of abstractions: from cycle-accurate to untimed models, and from bit-true behavior to floating-point algorithms. However, careful selection of the abstraction level and associated methodology is crucial to ensure practical gains for design teams.

Transaction-Level Modeling with SystemC presents the formalized abstraction and related methodology defined at STMicroelectronics, and covers all major topics related to the Electronic System-Level (ESL) industry:

- TLM modeling concepts
- Early embedded software development based on SoC virtual prototypes
- Functional verification using reference models
- Architecture analysis with mixed TLM and cycle accurate platforms
- Unifying TLM and RTL with platform automation tools

Complementary to the book, open source code to put this approach into practice is available on several Internet sites as indicated in the first chapter.

This book analyzes the causes of failures in computing systems, their consequences, as weIl as the existing solutions to manage them. The domain is tackled in a progressive and educational manner with two objectives: 1. The mastering of the basics of dependability domain at system level, that is to say independently ofthe technology used (hardware or software) and of the domain of application. 2. The understanding of the fundamental techniques available to prevent, to remove, to tolerate, and to forecast faults in hardware and software technologies. The first objective leads to the presentation of the general problem, the fault models and degradation mechanisms wh ich are at the origin of the failures, and finally the methods and techniques which permit the faults to be prevented, removed or tolerated. This study concerns logical systems in general, independently of the hardware and software technologies put in place. This knowledge is indispensable for two reasons: * A large part of a product' s development is independent of the technological means (expression of requirements, specification and most of the design stage). Very often, the development team does not possess this basic knowledge; hence, the dependability requirements are considered uniquely during the technological implementation. Such an approach is expensive and inefficient. Indeed, the removal of a preliminary design fault can be very difficult (if possible) if this fault is detected during the product's final testing.

Behavioral Intervals in Embedded Software introduces a comprehensive approach to timing, power, and communication analysis of embedded software processes. Embedded software timing, power and communication are typically not unique but occur in intervals which result from data dependent behavior, environment timing and target system properties.
In system design, these intervals are used in many ways. In some cases, only the worst case is of interest, e.g. for single processor schedulability analysis, in another context both best and worst cases are relevant, such as for multiprocessor scheduling. In all these cases, these behavioral intervals of the individual software processes are fundamental data needed to analyze system behavior. With growing importance of embedded software, formal analysis of behavioral intervals has met increasing interest. Major contributions were the introduction of implicit path enumeration and the inclusion of cache analysis. While all approaches are conservative, i.e. all possible timing behavior (or communication, power consumption) is included in the resulting intervals, the main differences are in the architecture features that are covered by the hardware model and the width of the conservative interval. The closer this interval to the real timing bounds, the higher is the practical use of formal analysis.
The current analysis techniques leverage on previous work in compiler technology by using basic blocks as elementary units for architecture modeling and path analysis. The work presented here opens a new direction moving from basic block based analysis to an analysis based on larger program segments with a single execution path. Such program segmentsfrequently extend over many basic blocks, in particular in embedded system applications.
The approach combines the generality and accuracy of formal analysis with the modeling precision of cycle true simulation without compromising formal completeness. The results show that with this combination of tracing and formal analysis both higher precision than previous approaches leading to tighter and more realistic intervals can be obtained and easier adaptation due to the use of standard off-the-shelf cache simulators, cycle-true processor models or evaluation boards is possible.
Behavioral Intervals in Embedded Software will be a useful reference for academics as well as research scientists who are active in the field of Design Automation and Embedded Systems.

Community structure is a salient structural characteristic of many real-world networks. Communities are generally hierarchical, overlapping, multi-scale and coexist with other types of structural regularities of networks. This poses major challenges for conventional methods of community detection. This book will comprehensively introduce the latest advances in community detection, especially the detection of overlapping and hierarchical community structures, the detection of multi-scale communities in heterogeneous networks, and the exploration of multiple types of structural regularities. These advances have been successfully applied to analyze large-scale online social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter. This book provides readers a convenient way to grasp the cutting edge of community detection in complex networks.
The thesis on which this book is based was honored with the Top 100 Excellent Doctoral Dissertations Award from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and was nominated as the Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation by the Chinese Computer Federation.

Java is an exciting new object-oriented technology. Hardware for supporting objects and other features of Java such as multithreading, dynamic linking and loading is the focus of this book. The impact of Java's features on micro-architectural resources and issues in the design of Java-specific architectures are interesting topics that require the immediate attention of the research community. While Java has become an important part of desktop applications, it is now being used widely in high-end server markets, and will soon be widespread in low-end embedded computing.

Java Microarchitectures contains a collection of papers providing a snapshot of the state of the art in hardware support for Java. The book covers the behavior of Java applications, embedded processors for Java, memory system design, and high-performance single-chip architectures designed to execute Java applications efficiently.

system is a complex object containing a significant percentage of elec A tronics that interacts with the Real World (physical environments, humans, etc. ) through sensing and actuating devices. A system is heterogeneous, i. e., is characterized by the co-existence of a large number of components of disparate type and function (for example, programmable components such as micro processors and Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), analog components such as AID and D/A converters, sensors, transmitters and receivers). Any approach to system design today must include software concerns to be viable. In fact, it is now common knowledge that more than 70% of the development cost for complex systems such as automotive electronics and communication systems are due to software development. In addition, this percentage is increasing constantly. It has been my take for years that the so-called hardware-software co-design problem is formulated at a too low level to yield significant results in shorten ing design time to the point needed for next generation electronic devices and systems. The level of abstraction has to be raised to the Architecture-Function co-design problem, where Function refers to the operations that the system is supposed to carry out and Architecture is the set of supporting components for that functionality. The supporting components as we said above are heteroge neous and contain almost always programmable components."

Spectral Techniques in VLSI CAD have become a subject of renewed interest in the design automation community due to the emergence of new and efficient methods for the computation of discrete function spectra. In the past, spectral computations for digital logic were too complex for practical implementation. The use of decision diagrams for spectral computations has greatly reduced this obstacle allowing for the development of new and useful spectral techniques for VLSI synthesis and verification. Several new algorithms for the computation of the Walsh, Reed-Muller, arithmetic and Haar spectra are described. The relation of these computational methods to traditional ones is also provided. Spectral Techniques in VLSI CAD provides a unified formalism of the representation of bit-level and word-level discrete functions in the spectral domain and as decision diagrams. An alternative and unifying interpretation of decision diagram representations is presented since it is shown that many of the different commonly used varieties of decision diagrams are merely graphical representations of various discrete function spectra. Viewing various decision diagrams as being described by specific sets of transformation functions not only illustrates the relationship between graphical and spectral representations of discrete functions, but also gives insight into how various decision diagram types are related. Spectral Techniques in VLSI CAD describes several new applications of spectral techniques in discrete function manipulation including decision diagram minimization, logic function synthesis, technology mapping and equivalence checking. The use of linear transformations in decision diagram size reduction is described and the relationship to the operation known as spectral translation is described. Several methods for synthesizing digital logic circuits based on a subset of spectral coefficients are described. An equivalence checking approach for functional verification is described based upon the use of matching pairs of Haar spectral coefficients.

Embedded systems are informally defined as a collection of programmable parts surrounded by ASICs and other standard components, that interact continuously with an environment through sensors and actuators. The programmable parts include micro-controllers and Digital Signal Processors (DSPs). Embedded systems are often used in life-critical situations, where reliability and safety are more important criteria than performance. Today, embedded systems are designed with an ad hoc approach that is heavily based on earlier experience with similar products and on manual design. Use of higher-level languages such as C helps structure the design somewhat, but with increasing complexity it is not sufficient. Formal verification and automatic synthesis of implementations are the surest ways to guarantee safety. Thus, the POLIS system which is a co-design environment for embedded systems is based on a formal model of computation. POLIS was initiated in 1988 as a research project at the University of California at Berkeley and, over the years, grew into a full design methodology with a software system supporting it. Hardware-Software Co-Design of Embedded Systems: The POLIS Approach is intended to give a complete overview of the POLIS system including its formal and algorithmic aspects. Hardware-Software Co-Design of Embedded Systems: The POLIS Approach will be of interest to embedded system designers (automotive electronics, consumer electronics and telecommunications), micro-controller designers, CAD developers and students.