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Learning Real-Time Programming Concepts through VxWorks Lab Experiments

Andrew J Kornecki, Janusz Zalewski, Daniel Eyassu

Proc. 13th Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training, Austin, Texas, USA. March 6-8, 2000

Abstract: The paper describes activities leading to the support of an academic instruction and industrial training in the area of time critical software development. Most of the modern software deals with external interfaces and has to consider various timing implications. Familiarity with real-time concepts and proper use of the software engineering process to develop real-time software became the critical component of modern software engineering. We describe a dedicated real-time laboratory infrastructure, the organization of the coursework, necessary Internet support, and the experiences of over five years offering real-time instruction in the context of software engineering focused undergraduate and graduate academic programs.

Formal Specification of a Safety Shell in Real-Time Control Practice

Abd-El-Kader Sahraoui, Eric Anderson, Jan van Katwijk, Janusz Zalewski

IFAC Proceedings, Vol. 33, No. 7, 2000

Abstract: A new technique for applying safety principles, termed safety shell, eases the formal verification by segregation of the safety critical regions of the application into independent, well structured modules. This paper presents a practical use of formal methods for verification of the safety shell. A framework is proposed for the integration of semi-formal and formal notations, via statecharts and VDM, in order to produce a formal specification. The approach relies on two steps. The first step consists in using adequately statecharts and support tools to guide the analyst's understanding of the system and produce a preliminary document. The second step consists in generating a VDM specification from the preliminary document on the basis of predefined rules. A tool support is developed to assist in the second step.