Multilanguage specification for system design

摘要

This chapter discusses specification languages and intermediate models used for system-level design. Languages are used during one of the most important stpes of system design: the specification of the system to be designed. A plethora of specification languages exists. Each claims superiority but excels only within a restricted application domain. Selecting a language is generally a trade off between several criteria such as the expressive power of the language, the automation capabilities provided by the model underlying the language and the availability of tools and methods supporting the manguage. Additonally, for some applications, several languages need to be used for the specification of different modules of the same design. Multilanguage solutions are requireed for the design of heterogeneous systems whwer different parts belong to different application classes e.g. control/data or continuous/discrete.