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Sun, 2006/08/20 - 02:03 — eric.verhulst

The unified systems engineering methodology is supported by a number of tools.

1. OpenSpecs

OpenSpecs is a web based tool for Requiremenst and Specifications capturing. It also covers the definition of test cases, fault cases and architectural elements (entities and their interactions). The formal basis is provided by a 'systems grammar'. The first release is based on the Plone/Zope Open Source environment. It can be downloaded for free below. No warranties provided but feedback welcome.

  1. Systems Grammar used in OpenSpecs
  2. OpenSpecs installation and administration manual
  3. OpenSpecs technical documentation

2. OpenComRTOS

OpenComRTOS was designed as a scalable runtime environment supporting the 'interacting entities' paradigm. designed as a scalable comunication layered with support for priority based scheduling between tasks, it is really a fully distributed Real Time Operating System. developed using formal modeling, it is not only a very clean architecture, but it is also inherently much safer and secuire than tradional RTOS. It can be used to support very small microcontrollers with limited memory, multi-core chips, FPGA cares, parallel DSP, whether tightly coupled or widely distributed. See following documents for more details. Current ports are on Windows XP and the Melexis MLX16X8 16bit microcontroller. OpenComRTOS is available under a Open License scheme.

  1. Press release OpenComRTOS_L0 August 2006
  2. OpenComRTOS flyer
  3. OpenComRTOS_L0 API and design document
  4. OpenComRTOS code and performance measurements on MLX16X8

3. Modeling

3.1. Formal modeling

Following a survey of available tools, a selection was made to support the OpenComRTOS project. The remaining tools that matched the criteria were SPIN/Promela and TLC/TLA+. Both are available in the public domain.

For a comparison, read the report .

3.2. Visual OpenComRTOS

Once architectural elements are specified, they can be used to start modeling the system under development. Visual OpenComRTOS merges a graphical modeling environment with an application development environment. Scheduled for 2007.