Dependable Component Based Software for CE Devices
Abstract
In today's consumer electronic products, a large part of the functionality is realized in software. As software is notoriously difficult and expensive to develop, manufacturers constantly look for more effective ways to construct this software. The typical solution is to integrate third party software components and to construct the software for a family of products rather than for a single product. This calls for a standard component model so that software developed by various independent software vendors can indeed be integrated (composed) into a system.
While component based software is common in desk-top computers this is not yet the case for consumer electronic products, primarily because of the cost and dependability demands on these products. Over the last couple of years a consortium of large and small companies, together with academia, has developed a software architecture that specifically addresses these demands. This was achieved in two European co-funded (ITEA) projects, called Robocop and Space4U. The architecture comprises a component model, a number of run-time frameworks, as well as techniques for predictable assembly of components. The architecture supports component trading, dynamic upgrading and extension of products in the field, and dependable operation.
In this tutorial we will introduce the technical elements of the architecture and show how they solve the issues in the domain of consumer electronics. In particular we will introduce the component model, the core of the architecture, give an outline of the resource management and the fault management frameworks, and introduce a technique for predicting timing properties of compositions of components. Finally, we will give a brief status update of the ISO standardization efforts that are currently underway
Authors
Jean Gelissen, Hugh Maaskant, Ronan Mac Laverty, Egor I. Bondarev