Pcanel: a model driven component framework

Modern embedded systems tend to be heterogeneous in the sense that components in a system have diverse interaction styles. Composition of subsystems with very different characteristic complicates embedded software development and challenges understandability, composability, and scalability of models. The paper describes a model driven component framework, Pcanel, to solve this problem. It proposes a hierarchical model structure and semantic framework that supports heterogeneous components. Pcanel drives component execution by models of computation, allowing the formal analysis, verification and validation of the embedded software. Models explicitly represent the designer's understanding of the system, and capture the requirements and the design of the application. The paper presents the principles and techniques of Pcanel in details. Examples in terms of real systems are given that illustrate how Pcanel addresses the heterogeneity nature and the assurance issues of embedded software composition.