From use cases to system implementation: statechart based co-design

Abstract

This paper proposes a methodology for embedded systems co-design, based on statechart models. The process starts with grabbing the system functionalities through use cases. A set of procedures addressing the implementation of statechart models is presented. The main goal of this set of procedures is to lift the structuring mechanisms presented in statecharts to the top level. In this sense, the complexity of statechart implementation will be similar to the complexity of communicating concurrent state machines and the platforms selected to support implementation will not need to have specific capabilities to directly support the structuring mechanisms of Harel's statecharts. As a consequence, full direct implementation of statecharts is possible considering different types of implementation platforms, ranging from hardware-centric or software-centric to hardware-software partitioning through codesign techniques.