It is a known fact that embedded system complexity doesn't stop increasing and model-driven software development turns more and more out to be an adequate approach to keeping this complexity under control. But it is still a major hassle to provide corresponding integrated tool environments which are sufficiently domain-oriented, scalable, and robust. Eclipse as an open and extensible tool platform is a very good starting point but not a solution per se. The Eclipse Modeling Project provides many of the additionally required building blocks but is very fragmented and not up to the point where it could provide the level of tool support embedded system designers expect. The recently created Sphinx project is meant to significantly improve this situation. It will be seeded with code from Artop – a platform for creating modeling tools supporting the AUTOSAR standard which has already been deployed at several larger automotive companies. Complementary building blocks will come from the Papyrus project. Sphinx will provide a modeling tool platform enabling IDE-like tool support for specific modeling languages to be developed at reasonable effort and cost. It will leverage and foster the industrial strength known from Artop and head towards a domain- and vendor-independent interoperability layer (backbone) for modeling tools of any kind.

1. www.geensys.com
Global Embedded Electronics & Networked SYstem Solutions
2010-11-04
Sphinx
An Industrial Strength Tool Platform Fostering
Model-driven Development of Embedded Systems
Dr. Stephan Eberle

2. 2© 2010 Geensys; made available under Eclipse Public License v1.0
About
Stephan Eberle
 Development manager at Geensys in Paris, France
 Lead of Artop Core and Validation
 Sphinx project co-lead
 Frequent speaker at conferences and events

3. 3© 2010 Geensys; made available under Eclipse Public License v1.0
Outline
About Embedded System Design Tooling
What has happened in Eclipse so far?
New: The Sphinx project
Wrap-up

4. 4© 2010 Geensys; made available under Eclipse Public License v1.0
Increasing Complexity & Expectations
1959 2009
Development time
Project
duration
1959 2009
# ECU Complexity
0
35
70
Compliance with quality and safty standards:
DO 178B
DO 254
ISO 26262
CMMI
IEC 61508
…

5. 5© 2010 Geensys; made available under Eclipse Public License v1.0
Domain-Specific Design Standards
Design Standard Covered
Aspect
Target Domain
AUTomotive Open System Architecture
Software
architecture
Automotive
ODX
Open Diagnostic data eXchange format
Diagnosis Automotive
RIF
Requirements Interchange Format
Requirements
definition
Automotive
Architecture Analysis & Design
Language
Software
architecture
Aerospace
Software
architecture
Transportation

6. 6© 2010 Geensys; made available under Eclipse Public License v1.0
Goal:
Integrated Full Lifecycle Tool Support
Requirements
definition
Functional
design
Variant
management
Software
architecture
Coding
Unit
testing
Integration
Subsystem
verification
Diagnosis
System
validation
Rapid
prototyping
Simulation
Software build
 Support of multiple domain-specific
standards/methodologies in parallel
 Support of user-defined development
practicies
Development
process
Design tool
chain

7. 7© 2010 Geensys; made available under Eclipse Public License v1.0
Outline
About Embedded System Design Tooling
What has happend in Eclipse so far?
New: The Sphinx project
Wrap-up

8. 8© 2010 Geensys; made available under Eclipse Public License v1.0
Two major initiatives: Artop & Papyrus
Since Oct 2008:
Artop
Since Nov 2008:
MDT Papyrus

9. 9© 2010 Geensys; made available under Eclipse Public License v1.0
Artop & Papyrus
Eclipse
Complementary
Layer (ECL)
Artop Autosar
Layer (AAL)
AUTOSAR
specific
 Common need for generic services enabling IDE-like tool
support for modeling languages
 Common need to meet scalability and robustness
requirements of real world industry use cases
Backbone
UML & Profile
support
Generic modeling
platform services
UML
specific
Generic modeling
platform services

10. 10© 2010 Geensys; made available under Eclipse Public License v1.0
Outline
About Embedded System Design Tooling
What has happend in Eclipse so far?
New: The Sphinx project
Wrap-up

11. 11© 2010 Geensys; made available under Eclipse Public License v1.0
Genesis of Sphinx
New Eclipse MDT project providing an
integrated modeling tool platform
Main use case:
Initial contributions from
 AUTOSAR-independent layer (ECL) of Artop
 Backbone of Papyrus
Modeling language(s) + Sphinx
 Industrial strength
integrated modeling tool environment

12. 12© 2010 Geensys; made available under Eclipse Public License v1.0
Key Services
Minimum effort basic modeling IDE support
 Model explorer view
 Form editors
 Compare & merge editor
 Validation & problem indication
 Draft: GMF-based graphical editors
 Planned: Graphiti-based graphical editors
 Planned: Xtext-based textual editors

13. 13© 2010 Geensys; made available under Eclipse Public License v1.0
Key Services
Model-oriented viewing and editing
 Explorers, editors, compare/merge, etc. capable of
acting upon individual model elements rather than
just entire resources
 Shared model instances and common load-edit-
save-unload lifecycle
 Automatic synchronization of model instances with
workspace resource changes
 Model load upon creation/drap & drop of new file
 Model reload upon file change,
 Model unload upon file/project deletion
 …

14. 14© 2010 Geensys; made available under Eclipse Public License v1.0
Key Services
Multi-model support
 Multiple models based on same metamodel
 Models based on different metamodels
 Models based on different versions of same
metamodel
 Migration of models between different metamodel
versions
 Extensible scoping of resources belonging to same
model instance; used for
 Loading, unloading complete models
 Model-level dirty state tracking and saving

15. 15© 2010 Geensys; made available under Eclipse Public License v1.0
Key Services
Handling of large models (scalability)
 Operation on shared model instances rather than
loading individual instances in every editor/view
 Performance-optimized content type detection
 Fast proxy resolution, avoidance of repeated
unsuccessful proxy resolution attempts
 Memory-optimized unloading of models
 Planned: Model respository integration
 Planned: Model indexing service

16. 16© 2010 Geensys; made available under Eclipse Public License v1.0
Key Services
Robustness
 Loading of damaged models & problem indication
 On-the-fly XSD validation
 Thread-safe sockets for explorers, editors, property
sheets
 Thread-safe APIs for asynchronous
loading/unloading large models

17. 17© 2010 Geensys; made available under Eclipse Public License v1.0
Wrap-up:
Mission of Sphinx
Sphinx
 Reduced effort in tool-supporting design standards/practicies
 Increased cross-vertical interoperability
User-
defined

18. 18© 2010 Geensys; made available under Eclipse Public License v1.0
Wrap-up:
Status & Outlook
Current Status:
 Project created and provisioned
 Initial code contribution from Artop ongoing
Next Steps
 November 2010: Migration of Artop to Sphinx
 Early 2011: Incorporation into Eclipse Modeling
Platform
 Mid 2011: First Sphinx release

19. 19© 2010 Geensys; made available under Eclipse Public License v1.0
Thank you!