Embedded Systems Design Europe - June/July 2008 - (Page 23)

MDD & IDEs MDD environments and IDEs within which they’ve worked have forced embedded system developers to work in either one or the other with no substantive interaction between the two “worlds.” In cases where the developer wants to work with models, if the models don’t generate code that includes behavior, he faces the difﬁcult task of writing the code in an IDE and then maintaining both the models and the code since the MDD environment and IDE are completely out of synch with each other. The link between model and code inevitably would be broken; the model information would lose its value as the code changed because most likely the developer would not update the model to reﬂect the code changes. Early MDD solutions that did generate code produced blackbox code, which is unreadable and offers very little code-level control. Getting the black-box code to look right and operate as intended was nearly a “black art,” and if the user could change the code, the model and the code would be out of synch, leading to a major maintenance issue. This lack of control and synchronization of the model and code reduced the value of modeling throughout the development lifecycle. By incorporating bidirectional linkage between an Eclipse IDE-based code-centric workﬂow and an MDD model-centric workﬂow, engineers can work within the familiar code-level IDE and within the same framework use modeling. In addition to easing the learning curve for embedded system developers now reluctant to incorporate modeldriven tools into their work ﬂow, the linkage also provides a number of powerful capabilities, including: • • • • • Reverse engineering of existing code into a graphical model; Round tripping of changes made to the code at the IDE level being developed back into the model; Automatic generation of new code from the model; Synchronizing of changes to either the code or the model through the Dynamic Model Code Associativity (DMCA); and Ensured code respect; that is, when code is reverse engineered or roundtripped and then regenerated, the user has the option in a bidirectional environment of maintaining the original ﬁle structure and naming of the ﬁles while also not changing the 23 www.embedded.com/europe | embedded systems design europe | JUNE – JULY 2008 http://www.embedded.com/europe

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Embedded Systems Design Europe - June/July 2008

Embedded Systems Design Europe - June 2008 Contents Work in Progress to Define Compact PCI Plus Power.org Demonstrates New Tools Project Supports Multi-core System Programming Altium Links Electronic to Mechanical Design PLDs Look to Cut Power Budget and Costs Project to Provide Coverage Analysis Tool Microsoft Details Windows Embedded Update Cover Feature: Leveraging Virtual Hardware Platforms for Software Allocating Memory in MATLAB-to-C Code MDD & IDEs: Making the Twain Meet in Embedded System Designs Debugging Mixed Signal Designs for Infrequent & Random Events Why Open Source is the Natural Choice for High-security Systems Bringing the Benefits of Low Power CPUs to Modular Design New Products Advertising Contacts

Embedded Systems Design Europe - June/July 2008

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