TURTLE: a real-time UML profile supported by a formal validation toolkit

We present a UML 1.5 profile named TURTLE (Timed UML and RT-LOTOS Environment) endowed with a formal semantics given in terms of RT-LOTOS. TURTLE relies on UML's extensibility mechanisms to enhance class and activity diagrams. Class diagrams are extended with specialized classes named Tclasses,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on software engineering 2004-07, Vol.30 (7), p.473-487
Main Authors: Apvrille, L., Courtiat, J.-P., Lohr, C., de Saqui-Sannes, P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analytical models
Application software
Character generation
Computer errors
Computer Science
Delay
Design
Designers
Embedded software
Embedded systems
formal validation
Modeling and Simulation
Preemption
Product reviews
Prototypes
Real time systems
RT-LOTOS
Semantics
Software engineering
Timing
UML
Unified modeling language
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Summary:We present a UML 1.5 profile named TURTLE (Timed UML and RT-LOTOS Environment) endowed with a formal semantics given in terms of RT-LOTOS. TURTLE relies on UML's extensibility mechanisms to enhance class and activity diagrams. Class diagrams are extended with specialized classes named Tclasses, which communicate and synchronize through gates. Also, associations between Tclasses are attributed by a composition operator (Parallel, Synchro, Invocation, Sequence, or Preemption) which provides them with a formal semantics. TURTLE extends UML activity diagrams with synchronization actions and temporal operators (deterministic delay, nondeterministic delay, time-limited offer, and time-capture). The real-time dimension of TURTLE has been further improved by the addition of two composition operators, periodic and suspend, as well as suspendable delay, latency, and time-limited offer operators at the activity diagram level. Core characteristics of TURLE are supported by TTool - the TURTLE toolkit - which includes a diagram editor, a RT-LOTOS code generator and a result analyzer. The toolkit reuses RTL, a RT-LOTOS validation tool offering debug-oriented simulation and exhaustive analysis. TTool hides RT-LOTOS to the end-user and allows him/her to directly check TURTLE modeling against logical errors and timing inconsistencies. Besides the foundations of the TURTLE profile, this paper also discusses its application in the context of space-based embedded software.
ISSN:0098-5589
1939-3520
DOI:10.1109/TSE.2004.34