Automatic Real-Time Software Synthesis

这项研究旨在通过使用自动软件合成技术来提供高度可重用和可维护的组件，该研究使用领域知识和自动软件合成体系结构相结合，该体系结构特别结合了特定于应用的知识。该体系结构综合软件以满足行为规范和外部交互设计约束。这些外部限制的一些例子是通信协议、精度、时间和空间限制。应用程序专用知识的结合有助于生成可用于缩小设计空间的数学软件度量标准，从而使软件综合易于处理。使用知识源使软件合成变得容易处理以及这种知识的组织是至关重要的。首先，选择一个特定于应用程序的领域，该领域将从拥有高度可重用和可维护的组件中受益匪浅。一个这样的领域是实时软件应用程序。其次，独立于应用的软件合成体系结构从最低抽象级别(例如，特定于应用的代码生成)到较高抽象级别(例如，系统资源分配)以该实时软件领域为目标。主要目标是保持对最终结果的关注：软件。第三，对独立于应用程序的软件综合体系结构进行扩展，以包括平台的知识。一个例子是运行实时Mach操作系统的RISC处理器。这项研究将导致开发特定用途的知识表示，并从综合的角度对软件设计进行新的表征。成功不仅通过减少开发时间，而且更重要的是促进目前主导系统生命周期成本的软件系统的维护、修改和扩展，有可能极大地降低系统生命周期成本。

This research into providing highly reusable and maintainable components by using automatic software synthesis techniques uses domain knowledge combined with automatic software synthesis architecture that specifically incorporates application-specific knowledge. This architecture synthesizes software to meet a behavioral specification and external interaction design constraints. Some examples of these external constraints are communication protocols, precisions, timing and space limitations. The incorporation of application-specific knowledge facilitates the generation of mathematical software metrics which can be used to narrow the design space, thereby making software synthesis tractable. The use of knowledge sources to make software synthesis tractable and the organization of this knowledge are paramount. First, an application-specific domain is chosen that will benefit greatly from having highly reusable and maintainable components. One such domain is real-time software applications. Second, the application- independent software synthesis architecture is targeted to this real-time software domain beginning from the lowest level of abstraction (e.g., application-specific code generation) up to higher levels of abstraction (e.g., system resource allocation). The primary goal is to maintain focus on the final result: software. Third, the application-independent software synthesis architecture is expanded to include knowledge of the platform. An example is a RISC processor running the Real-Time MACH operating system. This research will result in the development of use- specific knowledge representations and a new characterization of software design from a synthesis perspective. Success has the potential to dramatically reduce system life-cycle costs not only by reducing development time, but more importantly facilitating maintenance, modifications and extensions of software systems which are currently dominating system life- cycle costs.