Co-Design Imperative: Interdisciplinary Cooperation

Software and hardware engineers have two potentially conflicting goals when co-designing a HW/SW system:

to focus hard on designing their respective subsystems/components in order to cope with increasing complexity of systems, technologies and development tools and short time-to-market.
to build a subsystem/component which seamlessly operates with the rest of the system.

Trying to achieve these two goals, engineers face the following challenges:

To avoid causing development bottlenecks, they need to cooperate but HW and SW life cycles are very difficult to synchronize
When designing their respective subsystems/components, software and hardware engineers make implicit requirement interpretations, assumptions and design decisions, without always realizing the impact on the other disciplines. Being able to communicate about this is crucial to preventing later problems. However, these engineers have different training and vocabularies, and establishing unambiguous communication is a challenging task. Furthermore, knowing which requirement interpretations, assumptions and design decisions are relevant for the other discipline requires a certain level of empathy for the other discipline that is a hard skill to acquire. Teams must be motivated to co-operate, communication and knowledge-sharing must be organized.

Dealing with these challenges is a must for a HW/SW product builder, and therefore achieving interdisciplinary cooperation is a key imperative for HW/SW co-design

Following table lists all TWINS solutions and experience reports that address this co-design imperative.

ESSENTIAL ACTIVITIES	CO-DESIGN IMPERATIVE: Interdisciplinary Cooperation
Requirements Management	Sharing Requirements
Solutions	NeoMultiModel NeoMultiModel is a theoretical method which combines Requirements engineering, Architectural decomposition and Multidisciplinary modelling More details on the solution page Murphy - Sharing Interpretation of Requirements and Assumptions Murphy provides a mechanism for interdisciplinary cooperation through sharing individual interpretations of requirements and underlying assumptions made by the engineers of different disciplines More details on the solution page Supervisory control for hybrid systems This supervisory control for hybrid systems facilitates formalization of requirements, which, in turn, helps communicating the requirements between professionals with background in different disciplines More details on the solution pages: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Mobase, multidisciplinary model based engineering framework The MoBasE (model based engineering) framework provides an information model that describes the multidisciplinary design Requirements management using JIRA More details on the solution page Fixing Reliability Issues of Existing Thermal Printer Electronics The issues with this thermal printer were successfully solved. The key to the solution was proper documentation, improving design quality, the introduction of DFT structures and last but not least, proper coaching and cooperation of interdisciplinary design teams More details on the solution page Exploiting System Re-configurability to Minimize HW/SW Co-Design Risk The objective of the approach was to exploit the re-configurability of a programmable part being present in the system to verify/debug/optimize as much as possible the HW part of the system without the need for the final (embedded) SW part to be ready. A clear rendezvous point was created to ensure seamless inter-team operation More details on the solution page Improving interaction between different design and development teams The realization of a joint HW/SW co-design project that involves HW and SW teams from different companies requires these teams to interact and cooperate both within the companies as well as in between companies. Encountered problems were solved concerning language difference and the differences in the documentation flow More details on the solution page Test Setup Improvement by document improvement & addition of DFT structures The system consists of programmable building blocks (MCU + FPGA) interfacing with a PC. The system showed instable data flows between all building blocks. To resolve the problem, rendez-vous points between the different programmable system blocks (PC – microcontroller – FPGA) were documented. DFT features were added serving debugging, verification and systematic testing of current and future system functionality additions More details on the solution page AgileReq for Requirement Management AgileREQ is the SQS S.A. tool that implements requirements management, based on agile methodologies. These methodologies are particularly useful in an environment where there are continuous changes to the requirements More details on the solution page
Experience Reports	Fixing Reliability Issues of Existing Thermal Printer Electronics The issues with this thermal printer were successfully solved. The key to the solution was proper documentation, improving design quality, the introduction of DFT structures and last but not least, proper coaching and cooperation of interdisciplinary design teams More details on the solution page Exploiting System Re-configurability to Minimize HW/SW Co-Design Risk The objective of the approach was to exploit the re-configurability of a programmable part being present in the system to verify/debug/optimize as much as possible the HW part of the system without the need for the final (embedded) SW part to be ready. A clear rendezvous point was created to ensure seamless inter-team operation More details on the solution page Improving interaction between different design and development teams The realization of a joint HW/SW co-design project that involves HW and SW teams from different companies requires these teams to interact and cooperate both within the companies as well as in between companies. Encountered problems were solved concerning language difference and the differences in the documentation flow More details on the solution page Test Setup Improvement by document improvement & addition of DFT structures The system consists of programmable building blocks (MCU + FPGA) interfacing with a PC. The system showed instable data flows between all building blocks. To resolve the problem, rendez-vous points between the different programmable system blocks (PC – microcontroller – FPGA) were documented. DFT features were added serving debugging, verification and systematic testing of current and future system functionality additions More details on the solution page AgileReq for Requirement Management AgileREQ is the SQS S.A. tool that implements requirements management, based on agile methodologies. These methodologies are particularly useful in an environment where there are continuous changes to the requirements More details on the solution page
Architecture	Functional Decomposition
Solutions	NeoMultiModel NeoMultiModel is a theoretical method which combines Requirements engineering, Architectural decomposition and Multidisciplinary modelling More details on the solution page Modeling and supervisory control of printer and copier machines Control theory is used to generate the control code for paper path exception handling in a printer Model based control software synthesis for paper handling in printers Embedded control software for the paper flow in a printer is generated from a domain specific description Mobase, multidisciplinary model based engineering framework The MoBasE (model based engineering) framework provides an information model that describes the multidisciplinary design Fixing Reliability Issues of Existing Thermal Printer Electronics The issues with this thermal printer were successfully solved. The key to the solution was proper documentation, improving design quality, the introduction of DFT structures and last but not least, proper coaching and cooperation of interdisciplinary design teams More details on the solution page Exploiting System Re-configurability to Minimize HW/SW Co-Design Risk The objective of the approach was to exploit the re-configurability of a programmable part being present in the system to verify/debug/optimize as much as possible the HW part of the system without the need for the final (embedded) SW part to be ready. A clear rendezvous point was created to ensure seamless inter-team operation More details on the solution page Improving interaction between different design and development teams The realization of a joint HW/SW co-design project that involves HW and SW teams from different companies requires these teams to interact and cooperate both within the companies as well as in between companies. Encountered problems were solved concerning language difference and the differences in the documentation flow More details on the solution page Test Setup Improvement by document improvement & addition of DFT structures The system consists of programmable building blocks (MCU + FPGA) interfacing with a PC. The system showed instable data flows between all building blocks. To resolve the problem, rendez-vous points between the different programmable system blocks (PC – microcontroller – FPGA) were documented. DFT features were added serving debugging, verification and systematic testing of current and future system functionality additions More details on the solution page
Experience Reports	Fixing Reliability Issues of Existing Thermal Printer Electronics The issues with this thermal printer were successfully solved. The key to the solution was proper documentation, improving design quality, the introduction of DFT structures and last but not least, proper coaching and cooperation of interdisciplinary design teams More details on the solution page Exploiting System Re-configurability to Minimize HW/SW Co-Design Risk The objective of the approach was to exploit the re-configurability of a programmable part being present in the system to verify/debug/optimize as much as possible the HW part of the system without the need for the final (embedded) SW part to be ready. A clear rendezvous point was created to ensure seamless inter-team operation More details on the solution page Improving interaction between different design and development teams The realization of a joint HW/SW co-design project that involves HW and SW teams from different companies requires these teams to interact and cooperate both within the companies as well as in between companies. Encountered problems were solved concerning language difference and the differences in the documentation flow More details on the solution page Test Setup Improvement by document improvement & addition of DFT structures The system consists of programmable building blocks (MCU + FPGA) interfacing with a PC. The system showed instable data flows between all building blocks. To resolve the problem, rendez-vous points between the different programmable system blocks (PC – microcontroller – FPGA) were documented. DFT features were added serving debugging, verification and systematic testing of current and future system functionality additions More details on the solution page
HW/SW simulation & emulation	Multi-disciplinary Model Based Simulation and Emulation
Solutions	SystemC TLM/TLM-T Simulation Platform SystemC TLM/TLM-T Simulation Platform facilitates the use of the SystemC standard for the rapid design of software/hardware system prototypes and a more extensive design space exploration More details on the solution page Multi-tool and multi-format modelling More details on the solution pages: 1, 2 Concrete syntax and semantics of the compositional interchange format for hybrid systems The compositional interchange format for hybrid systems is syntactically and semantically defined in terms of an interchange automaton in an abstract format, allowing among others differential algebraic equations, variables that can be internal or external, and operators for parallel composition, action hiding, variable hiding and urgent actions, synchronization by means of shared labels, and communication by means of shared variables and CSP channels More details on the solution page Multi-tool and multi-format modelling More details on the solution page Connecting visualization tools with hybrid Chi More details on the solution pages: 1, 2, 3, 4 SIL, Software In the Loop, Simulation Set-up to test printer control software against a model of the physical engine SIL, Software In the Loop, Simulation A tool/environment to simulate the part of a printer that creates the toner image and puts it on paper Prototype printer visualization A prototype visualization tool for a test environment, with which software testers can follow the sheet behaviour in a simulated print engine and can manually influence the objects in the simulated paper path Visualization of a printer simulation A visualization tool for a simulation environment, with which software testers visually observe the behavior of a simulated print engine Interactive visualization A visualization tool for a simulation environment, with which software testers visually interact with the behavior of a simulated print engine Exploiting System Re-configurability to Minimize HW/SW Co-Design Risk The objective of the approach was to exploit the re-configurability of a programmable part being present in the system to verify/debug/optimize as much as possible the HW part of the system without the need for the final (embedded) SW part to be ready. A clear rendezvous point was created to ensure seamless inter-team operation More details on the solution page Test Setup Improvement by document improvement & addition of DFT structures The system consists of programmable building blocks (MCU + FPGA) interfacing with a PC. The system showed instable data flows between all building blocks. To resolve the problem, rendez-vous points between the different programmable system blocks (PC – microcontroller – FPGA) were documented. DFT features were added serving debugging, verification and systematic testing of current and future system functionality additions More details on the solution page
Experience Reports	SystemC TLM/TLM-T Simulation Platform SystemC TLM/TLM-T Simulation Platform facilitates the use of the SystemC standard for the rapid design of software/hardware system prototypes and a more extensive design space exploration More details on the experience report pages: 1, 2, 3 SIL, Software In the Loop, Simulation A tool/environment to simulate the part of a printer that creates the toner image and puts it on paper Exploiting System Re-configurability to Minimize HW/SW Co-Design Risk The objective of the approach was to exploit the re-configurability of a programmable part being present in the system to verify/debug/optimize as much as possible the HW part of the system without the need for the final (embedded) SW part to be ready. A clear rendezvous point was created to ensure seamless inter-team operation More details on the solution page Test Setup Improvement by document improvement & addition of DFT structures The system consists of programmable building blocks (MCU + FPGA) interfacing with a PC. The system showed instable data flows between all building blocks. To resolve the problem, rendez-vous points between the different programmable system blocks (PC – microcontroller – FPGA) were documented. DFT features were added serving debugging, verification and systematic testing of current and future system functionality additions More details on the solution page
Verification and validation	Collaborative Test Environments
Solutions	SIL, Software In the Loop, Simulation Set-up to test printer control software against a model of the physical engine SIL, Software In the Loop, Simulation A tool/environment to simulate the part of a printer that creates the toner image and puts it on paper Prototype printer visualization A prototype visualization tool for a test environment, with which software testers can follow the sheet behaviour in a simulated print engine and can manually influence the objects in the simulated paper path Visualization of a printer simulation A visualization tool for a simulation environment, with which software testers visually observe the behavior of a simulated print engine Interactive visualization A visualization tool for a simulation environment, with which software testers visually interact with the behavior of a simulated print engine Roadmap and requirements automatic testing Requirements and a proposed architecture for the testing of embedded control software for printers Automatic verification and analysis of test results Execution logs of a printer are checked against behavior specifications in LOTOS Concrete syntax and semantics of the compositional interchange format for hybrid systems he compositional interchange format for hybrid systems is syntactically and semantically defined in terms of an interchange automaton in an abstract format, allowing among others differential algebraic equations, variables that can be internal or external, and operators for parallel composition, action hiding, variable hiding and urgent actions, synchronization by means of shared labels, and communication by means of shared variables and CSP channels More details on the solution page Fixing Reliability Issues of Existing Thermal Printer Electronics The issues with this thermal printer were successfully solved. The key to the solution was proper documentation, improving design quality, the introduction of DFT structures and last but not least, proper coaching and cooperation of interdisciplinary design teams More details on the solution page Exploiting System Re-configurability to Minimize HW/SW Co-Design Risk The objective of the approach was to exploit the re-configurability of a programmable part being present in the system to verify/debug/optimize as much as possible the HW part of the system without the need for the final (embedded) SW part to be ready. A clear rendezvous point was created to ensure seamless inter-team operation More details on the solution page
Experience Reports	SIL, Software In the Loop, Simulation A tool/environment to simulate the part of a printer that creates the toner image and puts it on paper Fixing Reliability Issues of Existing Thermal Printer Electronics The issues with this thermal printer were successfully solved. The key to the solution was proper documentation, improving design quality, the introduction of DFT structures and last but not least, proper coaching and cooperation of interdisciplinary design teams More details on the solution page Exploiting System Re-configurability to Minimize HW/SW Co-Design Risk The objective of the approach was to exploit the re-configurability of a programmable part being present in the system to verify/debug/optimize as much as possible the HW part of the system without the need for the final (embedded) SW part to be ready. A clear rendezvous point was created to ensure seamless inter-team operation More details on the solution page
Management	Building a Multidiciplinary Project Community
Solutions	Murphy - Event Wall "Murphy provides an ""event wall"" where engineers from the ""co-design project community"" cooperate by (a) pariticipating in analysing of the ongoing activities trying to discover potential risks and redenzvous points (b) producing relevant events when entering a rendezvous point or a risk area" More details on the solution page Murphy - Co-Design Intelligence "Murphy provides a mechanism for cooperation through knowledge sharing in co-design project community. This is done through capturing ""co-design intellignence"": information from different sources is collected and filtered around major project risks and attention points" More details on the solution page Prototype printer visualization A prototype visualization tool for a test environment, with which software testers can follow the sheet behaviour in a simulated print engine and can manually influence the objects in the simulated paper path Visualization of a printer simulation A visualization tool for a simulation environment, with which software testers visually observe the behavior of a simulated print engine Interactive visualization A visualization tool for a simulation environment, with which software testers visually interact with the behavior of a simulated print engine Mobase, multidisciplinary model based engineering framework The MoBasE (model based engineering) framework provides an information model that describes the multidisciplinary design A computer-assisted approach towards visualizing formal behavioural models A co-design solution that visualizes abstract formal models by generating animations More details on the solution page Multidisciplinary Modelling Asurvey and its analysis, to improve collaboration between partners within the Mechatronic domain More details on the solution page Barco NPI Process Risk management, dealing with multidisciplinary design, team (event) communication More details on the solution page Application lifecycle management solution for distributed development The experiences showed that depending on SW project the information management systems of SW project interface with system and HW product information management databases. In some cases there is a need for a common way to share and access the same type of information with the other development projects, for instance, faults or test reports, through a single channel based on HW/SW product structure More details on the solution page Fixing Reliability Issues of Existing Thermal Printer Electronics The issues with this thermal printer were successfully solved. The key to the solution was proper documentation, improving design quality, the introduction of DFT structures and last but not least, proper coaching and cooperation of interdisciplinary design teams More details on the solution page Improving interaction between different design and development teams The realization of a joint HW/SW co-design project that involves HW and SW teams from different companies requires these teams to interact and cooperate both within the companies as well as in between companies. Encountered problems were solved concerning language difference and the differences in the documentation flow More details on the solution page Subversion +Trac Subversion (SVN) is well-known in the open source community as a version control system and Trac is an enhanced wiki and issue tracking system for software development projects More details on the solution page
Experience Reports	Application lifecycle management solution for distributed development The experiences showed that depending on SW project the information management systems of SW project interface with system and HW product information management databases. In some cases there is a need for a common way to share and access the same type of information with the other development projects, for instance, faults or test reports, through a single channel based on HW/SW product structure More details on the solution page Fixing Reliability Issues of Existing Thermal Printer Electronics The issues with this thermal printer were successfully solved. The key to the solution was proper documentation, improving design quality, the introduction of DFT structures and last but not least, proper coaching and cooperation of interdisciplinary design teams More details on the solution page Improving interaction between different design and development teams The realization of a joint HW/SW co-design project that involves HW and SW teams from different companies requires these teams to interact and cooperate both within the companies as well as in between companies. Encountered problems were solved concerning language difference and the differences in the documentation flow More details on the solution page Subversion +Trac Subversion (SVN) is well-known in the open source community as a version control system and Trac is an enhanced wiki and issue tracking system for software development projects More details on the solution page

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