A Modeling Language for the Description and Development of Tool Chains for Embedded Systems

Abstract: The development of embedded systems is typically supported by a number of diverse development tools. To achieve seamless tool support throughout the embedded systems development process, tool chains are constructed as software solutions that integrate the development tools. Tool chains have grown from ad-hoc solutions to complex software systems, since they need to support distributed engineering, integration conventions, a specific set of tools and the complete product development process used in a company. In practice, the development of tool chains that fulfill these needs is difficult and time-consuming, since it is a largely unsupported, manual engineering task. In addition, tool chains are typically described using general purpose modeling languages or languages borrowed from other domains, which contributes to the accidental complexity of tool chain development. Due to the increasing sophistication and size of tool chains, there is a need for a systematic, targeted description and development approach for tool chains.This thesis contributes with a language for the systematic description of tool chains and semi-automated techniques to support their development.The Tool Integration Language (TIL) is a domain-specific modeling language (DSML) for tool chains that allows describing tool chains explicitly, systematically and at an appropriate level of abstraction. TIL concepts are from the domain of tool integration and express the essential design decisions of tool chains at an architectural level of abstraction. A TIL model serves as a basis for the development of a tailored tool chain.Semi-automated techniques for the specification, analysis and synthesis support the development of tool chains that are described as TIL models. Specification techniques support the creation and refinement of a tool chain model that is aligned to a given development process and set of tools. Domain-specific analysis techniques are used to check the alignment of the tool chain model with the supported process. Synthesis techniques support the efficient realization of the specified tool chain model as a software solution that conforms to integration conventions.Experiences from case studies are presented which apply TIL to support the creation of tool chains. The approach is evaluated, both qualitatively and quantitatively, by comparing it to traditional development methods for tool chains. The approach enables the efficient development of tailored tool chains, which have the potential to improve the productivity of embedded systems development.