Simulation Tools for Dynamically Reconfigurable Automotive Embedded Systems - An Evaluation of TrueTime

This paper investigates the requirements for simulation as a basis for architecture verification and validation in the development of self-configurable automotive embedded systems. One central characteristic of such systems is that the system configuration, in terms of functionalities, software and hardware components, as well as their properties and how they are related, varies dynamically according to environmental and internal conditions. The reasons for this could for example be due to the needs of optimized resource utilization, effective software maintenance, integration of external devices, and error handling. Both generic and specific requirements formulated for dynamic reconfiguration are presented. In this paper, we focus in particular on TrueTime, a Matlab/Simulink utility for simulation of real-time control systems. TrueTime is promising for supporting dynamically configurable systems but is found to lack memory and middleware (MW) abstractions, and does not fully support dynamic tasks. Since TrueTime provides abstractions similar to the programming of a real system, care has to be taken to ensure the separation between applications, middleware and the lower level platform. We finally discuss how the simulation environment can be linked to the architectural design and the run-time system.QC 2010110