Parallel real-time systems: formal specification

For many real time applications, parallel computers offer a natural computing platform. However, very little attention has been paid to software support for real time embedded systems on parallel machines. The paper addresses the problem of formal software specification for parallel real time systems, and presents some features of a formal specification language-PRETSEL (Parallel REal Time SpEcification Language). The syntax of PRETSEL is presented and the formal semantic rules are defined. The effectiveness of PRETSEL is demonstrated through the specification of the functionality and timing requirements of a Sonar system.