The Embedded Machine is a virtual machine that mediates in real time the interac36) between software proc esses and physicV proc esses. It separates thecA51CP)OC3 of embedded programs into two phases. The first, platform-independent c6AC6)O phase generates E c de (c de exec633 by the Embedded Mac hine), whic h supervises the timing --- not thesc heduling--- ofapplic)OCP tasks relative to external events, suc h asc loc ktic ks and sensor interrupts. Ec ode is portable and exhibits, given an input behavior, predic)OCV (i.e., deterministicFA3)c and output behavior. Thesec ond, platform-dependentcAFFF5) phasec hec ks the time safety of the E c de, that is, whether platform performanc (determined by the hardware and platform utilization (determined by the sc heduler of the operating system enable its timely exec5P)OS We have used the Embedded Mac hine toc)3PVA and execCS high-performance control applications written in Giotto, such as the flight control system of an autonomous model helicopter.

Abstract — Twelve years ago, Proceedings of the IEEE devoted a special section to the synchronous languages. This article discusses the improvements, difficulties, and successes that have occured with the synchronous languages since then. Today, synchronous languages have been established as a technology of choice for modeling, specifying, validating, and implementing real-time embedded applications. The paradigm of synchrony has emerged as an engineer-friendly design method based on mathematicallysound tools.

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The science of computation has systematically abstracted away the physical world. Embedded software systems, however, engage the physical world. Time, concurrency, liveness, robustness, continuums, reactivity, and resource management must be remarried to computation. Prevailing abstractions of computational systems leave out these "non-functional" aspects. This chapter explains why embedded software is not just software on small computers, and why it therefore needs fundamentally new views of computation. It suggests component architectures based on a principle called "actor-oriented design," where actors interact according to a model of computation, and describes some models of computation that are suitable for embedded software. It then suggests that actors can define interfaces that declare dynamic aspects that are essential to embedded software, such as temporal properties. These interfaces can be structured in a "system-level type system" that supports the sort of design-time and run-time type checking that conventional software benefits from.

Giotto is a principled, tool-supported design methodology for implementing embedded control systems on platforms of possibly distributed sensors, actuators, CPUs, and networks. Giotto is based on the principle that time-triggered task invocations plus time-triggered mode switches can form the abstract essence of programming real-time control systems. Giotto consists of a programming language with a formal semantics, and a retargetable compiler and run-time library. Giotto supports the automation of control system design by strictly separating platform-independent functionality and timing concerns from platform-dependent scheduling and communication issues. The time-triggered predictability of Giotto makes it particularly suitable for safety-critical applications with hard real-time constraints. We illustrate the platform-independence and time-triggered execution of Giotto by coordinating a heterogeneous flock of Intel x86 robots and Lego Mindstorms robots.

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Copyright © 2006, by the author(s).

AbstractResource-constrained devices are becoming ubiquitous. Examples include cell phones, palm pilots, and digital ther-mostats. It can be difficult to fit required functionality into such a device without sacrificing the simplicity and clarityof the software. Increasingly complex embedded systems require extensive brute-force testing, making development andmaintenance costly. This is particularly true for system components that are written in assembly language. Static check-ing has the potential of alleviating these problems, but until now there has been little tool support for programming at theassembly level.

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