Automatic generation of protocol converters from scenario-based specifications

Abstract

With the complexity of the current embedded systems, it is impossible for a singlecompany to design and manufacture and entire electronic system in time an withinreasonable cost. Hence design re-use based on pre-designed intellectual property(IP) cores has become an absolute necessity for embedded system companies toremain competitive. However, one of the di culties in IP reuse is the incompatibilitiesbetween the protocols used by various parts. Hence, reusing IP cores oftenrequires designing converters (glue-logic) to enable their communication. In thiswork, we study the problem of automatically generating a protocol converter whichenables various embedded system components - using di erent (possibly incompatible)protocols - to talk to each other. The novelty of our approach is that it takesas input a scenario-based description of inter-component interactions described asa collection of Message Sequence Charts. From this speci cation, we systematicallysynthesize, when possible, the protocol converter that lets the components to usetheir native protocols while overall pattern of interaction is correctly realized. Wedemonstrate the feasibility of our approach by modeling some important featuresof existing Systems-on-Chip bus protocols.