Chapter 4 . Introduction to Domains , Targets , and Foreign Tool Interfaces

The Ptolemy software architecture is described in Chapter 1 and shown in Figure 1-2. The Ptolemy kernel provides a basic set of C++ classes and functions used by the rest of Ptolemy, but it does not implement any particular model of computation. Instead, a model of computation is defined by a domain. A domain defines the semantics of the model, but not how the computations are performed. The computations can be performed using one or more implementation languages, such as C++, C, MATLAB, and VHDL. A target coordinates the scheduling and implementation of algorithms described in a particular domain. As part of the coordination, a target may provide an interface to software (compiler, assembler, simulator, etc.) or hardware. A typical domain supports many different types of schedulers and many different implementation technologies, which is possible by having many different targets. Over twenty domains have been developed for Ptolemy, and 14 are released in Ptolemy 0.7; of these, nine support multiple targets.