Refinement of model specifications in embedded systems design

Most current codesign approaches leverage from a complete specification of an application design at the implementation level. We pursue here an implementation independent system level design specification for realtime embedded systems using modular executable discrete event models. This paper introduces a formal abstraction for the specification of such design models. In addition, it defines a set of refinement steps which may be used to refine abstract design models into implementation level design specifications. Our approach is illustrated using a small embedded systems application.