Towards model-driven methodology: A novel testing approach for collaborative embedded system design

With the influence of CSCW, model integrated computing plus platform based rapid prototype becomes a promising co-design paradigm in embedded system domain. Testing remains a key issue and becomes a bottleneck. Model-driven-testing (MDT) is an ongoing approach aiming to solve the problem. Capture and analysis of run-time testing result in prototype system is one of the four key techniques in MDT and not well studied yet. This paper describes a novel solution with the implementation of event-driven hardware/software collaborative monitor system, which allows system-level monitor on target system and observation at different abstraction-level. It is composed of a special hardware unit, software probes, and dedicated software: embedded analysis tools (EAT). The software probes collect run-time events in target system and export them via the hardware unit to a host database for EAT's further analysis. As an auxiliary supporting tool in designing environment, this monitor system can collaborate seamlessly with others in MDT testing tool chain, A complete MDT architecture is also presented.