Model Style Guidelines for On-Target Rapid Prototyping

On-target rapid prototyping uses automatic code generation to execute embedded control software, such as powertrain control systems, on close-to-production hardware. This contrasts with rapid prototyping that typically uses much more powerful hardware than will be used in production. Rapid prototyping allows the designer to evaluate the functional behaviour of embedded software, however, it does not ensure that the final product will satisfy the performance requirements on a resource constrained, mass production embedded microprocessor. By contrast, on-target rapid prototyping additionally allows an assessment of how the automatically generated code will perform on final production hardware. On-target rapid prototyping is being widely adopted in today's automotive and aerospace development processes. The primary technology that enables this is Model-Based Design with automatic production code generation. This session introduces on-target rapid prototyping. It will also discuss modelling and code generation guidelines that help developers transition smoothly from traditional rapid-prototyping to on-target rapid prototyping. Workflow details presented include model conversion from floating-point to fixed-point, data dictionary creation, block and state machine selection, and optimal code generation settings.