SCHEMASIM: a simulation environment for real-time systems

ABSTRACT

The design of real-time systems is inherently difficult because of the strict functional and temporal constraints such systems must satisfy when in operation. Often computer simulation plays a vital role in modelling real-time systems and is useful for determining whether sub-systems interact properly, timing constraints are upheld, and predictable behavior prevails in abnormal situations.In this paper, a new environment, called SCHEMASIM, for simulating real-time systems is overviewed. SCHEMASIM allows the designer to construct a graphical model of the intended real-time system and its environment and to describe essential functional and time-dependent behavior. An underlying discrete event simulator controls the graphical animation of the model and allows full user interaction.

REFERENCES

• 1: Osman Balci, The implementation of four conceptual frameworks for simulation modeling in high-level languages, Proceedings of the 20th conference on Winter simulation, p.287-295, December 12-14, 1988, San Diego, California, United States [doi>10.1145/318123.318204]
• 2: G.M. Birtwhistle , O.J. Dahl , B. Myhrhaug , K. Nygaard, Simula Begin, Chartwell-Bratt Ltd, 1979
• 3: William Bruyn , Randall Jense , Dinesh Keskar , Paul Ward, An extended systems modeling language (ESML), ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, v.13 n.1, p.58-67, Jan. 1988 [doi>10.1145/43857.43866]
• 4: Cheok, K. C. "Real-time simulation and animation for dynamic control systems," SIMULATION, 59:4, pp. 246--252, October, 1992.
• 5: Christopher J. Coomber, Object-oriented simulation procedure for automating transformation schema execution, International Journal in Computer Simulation, v.5 n.4, p.355-377, 1995
• 6: Coomber, C. J. "Automation of Transformation Schemas for Object-Oriented Simulations". In IEEE Press Monograph on Object-Oriented Simulation (in press).
• 7: J. J. Ewing , R. Wirfs-Brock, Smalltalk isn't meaningless chatter, Computer Design, v.26 n.2, p.76-79, Jan. 15, 1987
• 8: Adele Goldberg , David Robson, Smalltalk-80: The Language, Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1989
• 9: Meyers, W. "MCC: Planning the Revolution in Software," IEEE Software, pp. 68--74, November, 1985.
• 10: Ware Myers, Can software for the Strategic Defense Initiative ever be error-free?, Computer, v.19 n.11, p.61-67, Nov. 1986 [doi>10.1109/MC.1986.1663101]
• 11: Rooks, M. "A User-Centred Paradigm for Interactive Simulation," SIMULATION, 60:3, pp. 168--177, March, 1993.
• 12: D. P. Sanderson , R. Sharma , R. Rozin , S. Treu, The hierarchical simulation language HSL: a versatile tool for process-oriented simulation, ACM Transactions on Modeling and Computer Simulation (TOMACS), v.1 n.2, p.113-153, April 1991 [doi>10.1145/116890.116911]
• 13: Paul T. Ward , Stephen J. Mellor, Structured Development for Real-Time Systems, Yourdon Press, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1986
• 14: P T Ward, The transformation schema: An extension of the data flow diagram to represent control and timing, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, v.12 n.2, p.198-210, Feb. 1986
• 15: Zave, P. "An Operational Approach to Requirements Specification for Embedded Systems," IEEE Trans. Soft. Eng., vol. SE-8, no. 3, pp. 250--269, May, 1982.
• 16: P Zave , W Schell, Salient features of and executable specification language and its environment, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, v.12 n.2, p.312-325, Feb. 1986

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.3 SPECIAL-PURPOSE AND APPLICATION-BASED SYSTEMS
      Subjects: Real-time and embedded systems

Additional Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.4 PERFORMANCE OF SYSTEMS

  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.6 SIMULATION AND MODELING
      I.6.7 Simulation Support Systems
          Subjects: Environments
      I.6.8 Types of Simulation
          Subjects: Animation

General Terms:
Design, Performance, Theory

Keywords:
animation, real-time systems, transformation schema