PhD Thesis

Tinap: A Component-Based Model and Execution Infrastructure for Multi-Task, Soft Real-Time, and Embedded Applications



Overview


Our proposal is to present a component-oriented model and execution infrastructure for soft real-time and embedded applications (called Tinap).

We define a component model based on several views: a structural view placed at the centre of the design cycle and based initially on the Fractal component model. A dynamic view, allowing the designer, in a descriptive way, to directly customize its functional architecture with concurrency-related aspects. Finally, an implementation and a behavioral view, providing respectively an abstraction of the structure and the behavior of the internal implementations of the components according to the environment. Moreover, our proposal has been incorporated into a model-based approach in order to mitigate the complexities of the design phases.

We also experienced the component paradigm at different levels of abstraction: at application level and at execution infrastructure one. The latter implements the high-level concepts provided to the designer. Finally, at the operating system level which provides the services required by the infrastructure. This approach is motivated by the will to exploit our canonical model at these different levels, and to adapt it depending on their needs. This experimentation was conducted with Think, a C implementation of the Fractal specifications.

We present two case studies prototyped with Tinap. First, an application for DJ's (called DeckX): From a dedicated signal pressed on a vinyl and analysed by the software, the user is able to control various multimedia sources (audio/video). Secondly, for the implementation of the Accord execution model (a design methodology for real-time applications designed by the LISE team from the CEA).

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DeckX - Demo video


DeckX is an application for DJ's. From a dedicated signal pressed on a vinyl and analysed by the software, the user is able to control various multimedia sources (audio/video). DeckX is a prototype implemented during the PhD using Tinap as a case study. It is based on MsPinky (http://mspinky.com/).

First, the video shows the MsPinky signal's frequency spectrum. Second, how the analysis of that signal is used to control an audio stream and finally, a video stream.


Track used in the demo: "The Bells", the Jeff Mills' hymn, here performed in live by the Montpellier Philharmonic Orchestra and Jeff Mills himself (Blue Potential, 2006).