Impact of Platform Abstractions on the Development Workflow

The development workflow for distributed embedded system components in the automotive industry is typically characterized by a strict separation of concerns between the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and its suppliers. It is based on hardware components or Electronic Control Units (ECUs), where the OEM specifies the network layout and communication system properties before suppliers develop individual ECUs implementing the required functionality. We argue that platform abstractions such as envisioned by AUTOSAR or the Logical Execution Time (LET) abstraction would allow a fundamental overhaul of the development workflow, eventually leading to a significant gain in productivity and flexibility. We analyze the typical workflow and two standard development tools which are commonly used and compare both to the development workflow employed by tools based on the Timing Definition Language (TDL) which represents a LET-based language.