The Chimera Methodology: Designing Dynamically Reconfigurable and Reusable Real-Time Software using Port-Based Objects
Abstract
The Chimera Methodology is a software engineering paradigm that enables rapid development of real-time applications through use of dynamically reconfigurable and reusable software. It is targeted towards a distributed shared memory computing environment. The primary contribution of this research is the port-based object model of a real-time software component. The model is obtained by applying the port-automaton formal computational theory to object-based design. A finite state machine, detailed interface specifications, and a C-language template are used to define the port-based object. Tools to support the in-tegration, scheduling, and state variable communication between the objects have been developed and incorporated into the Chimera Real-Time Operating System. Techniques for verifying correctness and analyzing performance are also provided for configuration managers that integrate software designed using the port-based object model.
The research in this paper is supported, in part, by the Electrical Engineering Dept. and Institute for Advanced Computer Studies at University of Maryland, the Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept. and the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, Sandia National Laboratories, and NASA. Partial funding for D.Stewart was provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) through a graduate fellowship.
BibTeX
@article{Stewart-1996-14168,author = {David B. Stewart and Pradeep Khosla},
title = {The Chimera Methodology: Designing Dynamically Reconfigurable and Reusable Real-Time Software using Port-Based Objects},
journal = {International Journal of Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering},
year = {1996},
month = {June},
volume = {6},
number = {2},
pages = {249 - 277},
}