Esterel Technologies and Artisan Software Tools Integrate Model-Based Development Environments to Offer Complete System to Deployment Solution for Safety-Critical Embedded Systems

Whereas Artisan Studio is unique in its systems and software modeling capability, SCADE Suite is the only Model-Based Development (MBD) solution to provide DO-178B qualified code generation up to Level A for the C language. Furthermore, SCADE Suite provides IEC 61508 code generation qualifiable up to Safety Integrity Level (SIL) 3 and EN 50128 qualified code generation up to SIL 4. Each of these products, unique in their own way, when combined provides unparalleled productivity for the system and software developer of safety-critical applications.

In the safety-critical application development market, the code qualification process for DO-178B, IEC 61508, and EN 50128 consume tremendous amounts of manpower, time, and money. The partnership between Esterel Technologies and Artisan Software Tools, and the resulting integration between SCADE Suite and Artisan Studio, offers a comprehensive and seamless workflow, from system models, documentation, and requirements analysis, through production-quality code generation, testing, and validation. By efficiently addressing two of the most significant costly development phases, unit testing and software certification, this integrated approach saves the development team both time and money. Unit testing is essentially eliminated and the effort and time required certifying the software is greatly reduced through provided qualification products, documentation, and automatic code generation and validation.
In terms of workflow, the process typically begins with the systems team who utilize Artisan Studio to capture, visualize, and communicate system requirements, structure, and constraints using SysML/UML graphical views. SCADE Suite is then used to refine the Artisan Studio SysML/UML models by capturing the detailed software requirements of the safety-critical components in Artisan Studio, then automatically importing the system structure captured in SysML Block Diagrams, UML Structure Diagrams, and SysML/UML Class Diagrams. The import mechanism and process is incremental. In addition, the architecture, structure, and names captured in Artisan Studio are preserved in the import process to SCADE Suite. All information is maintained and available for further elaboration inside of SCADE Suite.

For applications that require a Human-Machine Interface (HMI), such as those common in navigation systems or devices that manage and configure the end-user system, Esterel Technologies offers SCADE Display which can be used to model and simulate the front-panel displays in the embedded system. These models are easily connected to the end-user application and serve as an interface into the system under design. The resulting detailed models of SCADE Display are validated through simulation and production-quality embedded code is automatically generated using the unique SCADE Suite and SCADE Display qualified code generators. Ultimately, the final system is integrated within the target platform and downloaded to the target embedded processors.

The SCADE Suite/Artisan Studio integration is primarily targeted at solving the development challenges in projects that require certification such as those typically found in aerospace and defense, nuclear, transportation, industrial, automotive, and medical applications. This integrated model-based development solution also supports multiple development scenarios including pure safety-critical systems, as well as hybrid systems containing both safety-critical systems and non-safety-critical components. The integrated solution will be available in Q3 of 2008 and both companies will continue to work to enhance the workflow experience and productivity of end-users.

“Our partnership with Artisan Software Tools has been driven by our mutual customers. They have asked for an integrated approach from systems modeling through production code generation and validation. This integrated solution offers exactly that for our customers developing real-world mission and safety-critical applications, providing significant improvements to their workflow and productivity”, said Eric Bantegnie, President and CEO of Esterel.

“Using model driven development , the entire development workflow is automated and streamlined, from requirements analysis, through to systems and software architecture definition and non-certified code generation in Artisan Studio and, detailed design and certified code generation from SCADE Suite ensuring increased developer productivity and the deployment of high quality systems”, said James B. Gambrell, CEO of Artisan Software Tools.