@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}, } @inproceedings{eder2018exploration, author = {Eder, Johannes}, title = {Exploration of hardware topologies based on functions, variability and timing}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 21st ACM/IEEE International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems: Companion Proceedings}, publisher = {ACM}, pages = {145--149}, year = {2018}, month = oct, abstract = {This paper gives an overview over a dissertation project in the area of design space exploration for distributed, embedded systems. As the engineering of distributed embedded systems is getting more and more complex due to increasingly sophisticated functionalities demanding more and more powerful hardware, automation is required in order cope with this rising complexity. Using a model based systems engineering approach enables design space exploration methods which provide such automations, given a formalization of the problem in order to be solvable e.g. by SMT solvers. In this thesis we want to provide an automated synthesis of hardware topologies (E/E architectures) based on the functions which are deployed onto this topology and constraints and optimization objectives which are derived from the requirements of the system. The synthesis shall consider variability aspects (possible variants) of the hardware elements. Additionally, timing aspects of the deployed shall be regarded such that the solution of the synthesis is a hardware topology, a deployment of functions onto this topology and a schedule of these functions. The thesis shall be evaluated by using an automotive industrial use case of realistic size.}, doi = {10.1145/3270112.3275333}, keywords = {AutoFOCUS3, design-space exploration, DSE, architecture synthesis, HW/SW co-design, model-based systems engineering, MbSE}, } @inproceedings{eder2018deployment, author = {Eder, Johannes and Bayha, Andreas and Voss, Sebastian and Ipatiov, Alexandru and Khalil, Maged}, title = {From deployment to platform exploration: automatic synthesis of distributed automotive hardware architectures}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 21th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems}, pages = {438--446}, year = {2018}, month = oct, organization = {ACM}, abstract = {In order to cope with the rising complexity of today's systems, model-based development of software-intensive embedded systems has become a de-facto standard in recent years. In a previous work, we demonstrated how such a model-based approach can enable automatization of certain development steps, namely the deployment of logical (platform-independent) system models to technical (platform-specific) system models. Together with Continental, we especially focused on industrial applicability. In this work, we demonstrate how we extended, again in cooperation with Continental, the previous approach in order to enable a synthesis of the topology of technical platforms (E/E architectures) together with a deployment. We furthermore introduced variability concepts in order to model variants of technical platforms which is an industrial required need. Our approach is thus capable of calculating a platform architecture and its topology which is optimized in terms of the deployment of logical system models, constraints, optimization objectives and choses the optimal variant for all technical models.}, doi = {10.1145/3239372.3239385}, keywords = {AutoFOCUS3, design-space exploration, DSE, architecture synthesis, HW/SW co-design, model-based systems engineering, MbSE, case study}, } @inbook{, author = {Migge, J{\"{o}}rn and Balbastre, Patricia and Barner, Simon and Chauvel, Franck and Craciunas, Silviu S. and Diewald, Alexander and Durrieu, Guy and Haugen, Oystein and Syed, Ali Abbas Jaffari and Pagetti, Claire and Oliver, Ramon Serna and Vasilevskiy, Anatoly}, editor = {Ahmadian, Hamidreza and Obermaisser, Roman and P{\'{e}}rez, Jon}, title = {Algorithms and Tools}, booktitle = {Distributed Real-Time Architecture for Mixed-Criticality Systems}, publisher = {{CRC} Press}, pages = {98}, year = {2018}, month = aug, timestamp = 2018.08.21, abstract = {This chapter introduces the algorithms and tools to support the design and verification activities of the model driven development process. In addition, the scheduling and configuration algorithms are described to support different scheduling domains of the DREAMS architecture. This chapter begins with Section 5.1.2, which describes variability and design space exploration in the design of mixed-criticality systems. In Section 5.2, scheduling algorithms at different levels, e.g., partition level, task level, on-chip and off-chip communication are elaborated. Adaptation strategies is another topic which is covered in Section 5.3. Recovery strategies, transition modes for faster switching and algorithms for online admission of tasks in offline scheduling tables are described in this section. Timing analysis is described in Section 5.4 at different levels and Section 5.5 describes by the tools. At the Section 5.6 three toolchain use cases are presented that help to apply the toolchain.}, isbn = {978-0-8153-6064-3}, doi = {10.1201/9781351117821-5}, keywords = {AutoFOCUS3, design-space exploration, DSE, architecture synthesis, HW/SW co-design, model-based systems engineering, MbSE}, } @inproceedings{Diewald2018, author = {Diewald, Alexander and Barner, Simon and Voss, Sebastian}, title = {Architecture Exploration for Safety-Critical Systems}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the DATE Workshop on New Platforms for Future Cars: Current and Emerging Trends (NPCAR)}, year = {2018}, month = mar, abstract = {Future cars will host massively more functionality that comes along with the introduction of new technologies such as neural networks and data fusion, which are enablers for autonomous driving, but which require massive processing capabilities. Hence, new architectures are required that can handle the contradicting requirements for efficiency and safety compliance. The increased complexity and size of upcoming target architectures raise the need for advanced design methodologies and tool support. In this work, we present an approach that combines model-driven development (MDD) with design space exploration (DSE) that can explore suitable architectures of safety functions and platforms also in early design phases and enables trade-off decisions. The DSE uses optimization decomposition for complexity reduction and reusability while respecting the dependencies implied by development processes.}, keywords = {AutoFOCUS3, design-space exploration, DSE, architecture synthesis, HW/SW co-design, model-based systems engineering, MbSE}, } @inproceedings{, author = {Barner, Simon and Diewald, Alexander and Migge, J{\"{o}}rn and Syed, Ali Abbas Jaffari and Fohler, Gerhard and Faug{\`{e}}re, Madeleine and Gracia P{\'{e}}rez, Daniel}, title = {DREAMS Toolchain: Model-Driven Engineering of Mixed-Criticality Systems}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE 20th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems (MODELS '17)}, publisher = {IEEE}, pages = {259--269}, year = {2017}, month = sep, abstract = {Mixed-criticality systems (MCS) aim at boosting the integration density in safety-critical systems, resulting into efficient systems, while simultaneously providing increased performance. The DREAMS project provides a cross-domain architectural style for MCS based on networked, virtualized multi-cores controlled by hierarchical resource managers. However, the availability of a platform is only one side of the coin: deploying mixed-critical applications to shared resources typically requires design-time configurations (e.g., to ensure real-time constraints or separation constraints mandated by safety regulations). These configurations are the outcome of complex optimization problems which are intractable in a manual process that also hardly can guarantee the consistency of all deployable artefacts nor their traceability to the requirements. However, existing toolchains lack support for MCS integration, and particularly DREAMS' advanced platform capabilities. We present an integrated model-driven toolchain and the underlying metamodels covering all relevant aspects of MCS including applications, timing, platforms, deployments, configurations and annotations for extra-functional properties such as safety. The approach focuses on the left branch of the V-cycle, and ranges from product-line and design space exploration to resource allocation and configuration generation. We report on the integration of exploration tools and a reconfiguration graph synthesizer, and evaluate the resulting toolchains in two use cases consisting of a product-line of wind power control applications and an avionic subsystem respectively.}, doi = {10.1109/MODELS.2017.28}, keywords = {Multicore processing, Resource management, Safety, Tools, Mixed-Criticalitity Systems, , Product-Lines, AutoFOCUS3, design-space exploration, DSE, architecture synthesis, HW/SW co-design, model-based systems engineering, MbSE}, } @inproceedings{Barner2016, author = {Barner, Simon and Diewald, Alexander and Eizaguirre, Fernando and Vasilevskiy, Anatoly and Chauvel, Franck}, title = {Building Product-lines of Mixed-Criticality Systems}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the Forum on Specification and Design Languages (FDL 2016)}, publisher = {IEEE}, year = {2016}, month = sep, address = {Bremen, Germany}, abstract = {Mixed-Criticality Systems (MCS) reconcile safety-critical requirements with multi-core architectures, by offering spatial and temporal isolation while preserving other extra-functional properties such as optimised energy consumption or minimised latencies. MCS designers struggle to manually balance the offered functionalities with pertinent implementation choices in order to ensure that the system eventually meets all constraints. Existing attempts to further automate this process focus on specific concerns, and fail to account for variation in system functionalities. Our contribution is to integrate product-lines that capture functional variations with evolutionary optimisation to explore possible implementations and their impact on extra-functional properties. Our solution is a model-driven process (and a tool prototype) to automatically select functionally different products that balance well the various concerns of interest. We illustrate how this process applies to the construction of wind turbines.}, doi = {10.1109/FDL.2016.7880378}, keywords = {Product-lines, cyber-physical systems, MCS, evolutionary optimisation, mixed-criticality systems, multicore architectures, wind turbines, Energy consumption, AutoFOCUS3, design-space exploration, DSE, architecture synthesis, HW/SW co-design, model-based systems engineering, MbSE}, } @inproceedings{, author = {Zverlov, Sergey and Voss, Sebastian}, title = {Synthesis of Pareto Efficient Technical Architectures for Multi-core Systems}, booktitle = {Computer Software and Applications Conference Workshops (COMPSACW), 2014 IEEE 38th International}, year = {2014}, abstract = {In the area of embedded systems exists a continuous need for more computing power while still fulfilling a large set of constraints in - for instance - timing, safety, cost and energy consumption. Since single-core technologies seem to reach their limits, multi-core systems became the trend in this area. This paper describes a synthesis approach of application-specific homogeneous multi-core architectures, which are optimized towards timing, number of cores and energy consumption. Our method finds the optimal number of cores of the multi-processor system, along with the mapping of tasks onto these cores with the corresponding schedules and the frequency for each core. Since the optimization criteria are concurrent, the results are presented as a Pareto front. The approach is integrated in the model-based tooling framework, called Auto FOCUS3. As input our approach uses the information from the logical architecture of AF3, which represents a component based structure view of the system under development. The approach is based on the Branch & Bound algorithm, which was adapted for our three-dimensional optimization problem.}, doi = {10.1109/COMPSACW.2014.63}, keywords = {AutoFOCUS3, design-space exploration, DSE, architecture synthesis, HW/SW co-design, model-based systems engineering, MbSE}, }