Executable Specifications for Distributed Embedded Systems

Combining hardware components with an executable specification language facilitates the specification prototyping of an embedded distributed system. The specification language should cover process management, timing, and communication commands that real-time executive and communication task services of every node prototype can interpret. We use a technique that employs attribute grammars and either a macroprocessor or Prolog to execute the language. The overall prototyping technique consists of the following steps: (i) defining a concrete specification language, including a description of its semantics through an attribute grammar; (ii) using text macros or Prolog definite clause grammar to implement a translator prototype that encodes this attribute grammar; (iii) designing a trial architecture and identifying its reusable components; and (iv)using the trial system architecture and the devised specification language to specify a target application system, followed by macroprocessor- or Prolog-driven expansion of that specification into executable code.