UML as a system level design methodology with application to software radio

Abstract

Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a powerful specification language used widely in software development, as it improves product quality and productivity significantly. Embedded system designers also use UML notations to capture the system level design requirements and do the early stage testing. However, UML-based models are still far away from the implementation code. In order to address this problem, we have developed a framework for deriving SystemC specifications from the class, statechart and component diagrams in order to capture the structure and the behavior of embedded systems. The derived SystemC specifications can be further compiled into system hardware implementation by using CoCentric compiler. One of our case studies, applications on software radio design shows many significant advantages of this methodology.