A metamodel for the design of polychronous systems

This article presents the development of a metamodel and an open-source design environment for the synchronous language Signal in the Gme and Eclipse frameworks. This environment is intended to be used as a pivot modeling tool for a customized, aspect-oriented and application-driven, computer-aided engineering of embedded systems starting from multiple and heterogeneous initial specifications. The metamodel, called SignalMeta, is defined on top of the design workbench Polychrony, which is dedicated to Signal programming. Automated transformations are defined and implemented in order to produce, analyze, statically verify and model-check programs obtained from high-level models.The proposed approach promotes model-driven engineering within a framework that strongly favors formal validation. It aims at significantly decreasing design costs while improving the quality of systems. We demonstrate the agility of this approach by considering the design of both control-oriented and avionic systems. We start with an implementation of core polychronous1 data-flow concepts in Gme and show the ease of its modular extension with application-specific concepts such as mode automata or integrated modular avionics concepts. This work is the first attempt to generalize the formal model of computation and the design philosophy of Polychrony.