Platform Analysis in Embedded Systems

Ever-increasing functionality and the nonfunctional constraints that must be satisfied by embedded systems lead to an enormous growth in the complexity at the system level. Platform selection for such systems is challenging task as the decision largely affects the successful implementation of embedded system. Conventional way of looking into platform selection as one dimensional problem fails when it comes to complex systems with multiple stakeholders. To overcome this challenge we propose to use 'System Views' methodology for platform analysis and selection. 'System Views' are based on multiple, concurrent views used to address the concerns of the various 'stakeholders' of the system separately. 'System Views' model has been used with success on several large software centric projects. However in this paper, we investigate the use of 'System Views' methodology in embedded system design. A systematic hardware platform selection process based on 'System Views' is presented. Moreover, it is proposed to use this approach in complex architecture systems with multiple stakeholders such as present day embedded systems at various decision making stages.