Integrated design tools for hard real-time systems

We propose a toolset for designing real-time systems. The toolset is based on a design methodology for real-time systems. The purpose of a design methodology is to provide a set of procedures and guidelines that, with human intervention and interaction, allow designers to systematically obtain implementations of systems that conform precisely to their design specifications. Our methodology is designed for automation. We present the toolset and case study of the design of a simple VCR system. The methodology is based on a formal model and precise descriptions of the components of the system. The underlying model of our methodology is composed of a control level and a data-flow level that, together with a resource scheduler and the application-specific code, make up the system under design.