IMPROVED COMPUTER AIDED SOFTWARE ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY FOR EMBEDDED COMPUTER SYSTEMS

THE PROPOSED PHASE I WORK WILL PROTOTYPE A NEW CASE TOOL THAT WILL ASSIST WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF EMBEDDED COMPUTER SYSTEMS. THE MOST PROMINENT FEATURES OF THE TOOL ARE LIFE-CYCLE INTEGRATION AND FREEDOM FROM METHODOLOGY CONSTRAINTS. THE TOOL WILL PROVIDE MULTIPLE VIEWS INTO A DESIGN KNOWLEDGE BASE, ALLOWING THE USERS TO CHOOSE VIEWS THAT ARE MOST APPROPRIATE FOR THE ISSUES AT HAND. EACH VIEW SUPPORTS THE DISPLAY, EDITING, AND AUTOMATED ANALYSIS USING EITHER A GRAPHICAL, LIST-ORITNETED, OR TEXTUAL REPRESENTATION. THE KNOWLEDGE BASE SCHEMA AND VIEWS ARE USER CUSTOMIZABLE THROUGH EASY-TO-USE EDITORS, ALLOWING THE TOOL TO QUICKLY AND EASILY ADAPT TO NEW OR EVOLVING METHODOLOGIES. A SET OF CUSTOMIZED VIEWS THAT INTEGRATE BOTH A GRAPHICAL OBJECT-ORIENTED DESIGN NOTATION AND SOURCE CODE TEXT DEMONSTRATES THE TOOL'S ABILITY TO LINK SEPARATE STAGES OF THE DEVELOPMENT LIFE-CYCLE.