A MODEL-DRIVEN ENGINEERING APPROACH TO DERIVE SIMULATION MODELS FROM UML-BASED HARDWARE DESCRIPTIONS

摘要

Modeling is a crucial step in the initial stages of computer-based systems development. Early in the design cycle, system models must be rated, concerning design constraints, and decisions must be made. For this purpose, a highly expressive visual modeling language for system hardware is required. A multitude of UML-based hardware description languages have been developed in recent years. However, they are still confined to a pure documentation role and are not an integral part of the development process. Hence, formal transformation methods from hardware representations to formal simulation models yet have to emerge. In this work, we bring forward a transformation method from UML-based hardware descriptions to Extended Queuing Networks (EQN), based on Model-Driven Engineering techniques. Therefore, we specify a meta-model for EQNs, that conforms to the Ecore meta-meta-model from the Eclipse Modeling Framework and utilize the ATLAS Transformation Language to declare transformation rules between the specification and the simulation model. As we also disclose a generic hardware description format, this work fosters the development of further methods for code generation (e.g. VHDL or System C) and system evaluation with Model-Driven Engineering approaches.