@article{, author = {Eder, Johannes and Voss, Sebastian and Bayha, Andreas and Ipatiov, Alexandru and Khalil, Maged}, title = {Hardware architecture exploration: automatic exploration of distributed automotive hardware architectures}, journal = {Software and Systems Modeling}, volume = {19}, pages = {911--934}, year = {2020}, month = jul, abstract = {As the engineering of distributed embedded systems is getting more and more complex, due to increasingly sophisticated functionalities demanding more and more powerful hardware, model-based development of software-intensive embedded systems has become a de facto standard in recent years. Among other advantages, it enables design space exploration methods allowing for frontloading techniques which support a system architect already at early stages of development. In this paper, we want to present an approach which is capable of automatically generating automotive E/E architectures (electric/electronic architecture; in-car network of processing units and buses). Based on the concept of viewpoints, we will introduce dedicated technical meta-models, a language to formally describe a hardware architecture exploration problem and an automatic exploration approach using satisfiability modulo theories. We will furthermore introduce a dedicated methodology and show how an exploration integrates into a system development process. In the end, we will evaluate our approach by applying it to an industrial use case provided by Continental.}, doi = {10.1007/s10270-020-00786-6}, keywords = {AutoFOCUS3, design-space exploration, DSE, architecture synthesis, deployment synthesis, HW/SW co-design, model-based systems engineering, MbSE, case study}, }