Codesign of dependable systems: A component-based modeling language

This paper presents a model-based approach to system-software co-engineering which is focused on aerospace systems but is relevant to a much wider class of dependable systems. We present the main ingredients of the SLIM modeling language and give a precise interpretation of SLIM models by providing a formal semantics using networks of event-data automata. The major distinguishing aspects of this component-based approach are the possibility to describe nominal hardware and software operations, hybrid (and timing) aspects, as well as probabilistic faults and their propagation and recovery. As our approach bears strong resemblance to the standardized AADL (Architecture Analysis and Design Language), a secondary contribution of this paper is a formal semantics of a large fragment of AADL including its Error Model Annex.