Embedded Multi-Core Systems for Mixed Criticality Applications in Dynamic and Changeable Real-Time Environments

Purpose and goal

The main goal of the project for ABB was the realization of an open tool-chain, for seamless tool integration, intending to support: * higher engineering efficiency and quality * reduced design time * easy replacement of tools * no vendor “lock-in” situations We built an orchestrator offering tool transparency, notification, traceability and version control services, based on OSLC and delegated interfaces. The development becomes contained in one tool context. A method and a tool for supporting application deployment on either software or hardware technologies was also developed.

Expected results and effects

An industrial use case development - a “Cooling System for Transmission Plant” system - was addressed during the project. Via several validation (with and without the artefacts of the project) phases in the actual context, an up to 30% improvement in efficiency of the design process was observed, larger than the targeted numbers. Due to the notification and traceability services, the approach also supports a higher quality of the design process. A PhD degree was obtained during the project on software / hardware partitioning topics.

Planned approach and implementation

The (local) project met with problems on resources in its second execution stages. This was addressed by allocating exclusively some of the remaining resources to the project, in order to compensate to some extent the loss. In addition, the disappearance of one of the key partners (Visure) limited the validation activities, rendering impossible to test exchange of tools in the given context.