Modeling for Partitioned and Multi-core Flight Software Systems: (Instrument Software Framework)

This paper presents an approach for modeling component based flight software systems that can be deployed to a wide variety of hardware and operating system configurations. Our focus is deployment to multiple ARINC653 partitions, however, the technique is effective across multiple processors as well. The modeling technique presented is two tiered: first software components are represented in System Modeling Language (SysML) utilizing an off-the-shelf Magic Draw Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tool. A custom plug in is used to produce domain specific XML. Secondly, a Python code generator is used to map the domain specific XML to implementation C++ code. To facilitate the technique a new lite-weight component framework called the Instrument Software Framework (ISF) was developed. Component based software architectures have been shown to improve the quality of flight software systems. The modeling approach using SysML, XML and the ISF is explained. Separation of concerns of the deployment target environment from the component implementation are demonstrated by our technique. The ISF architecture will be described along with an essential Hub Component Design Pattern that enables swappable communication mediums between computing elements.