AutomotiveArchitect: An Environment for the Design of Automotive Systems Architectures Augustin Kebemou Fraunhofer-Institute for Software- and Systems Engineering ISST Mollstrasse 1, 10178 Berlin, Germany Ina Schieferdecker Fraunhofer-Institute for Open Communication Systems FOKUS Kaiserin-Augusta-Allee 31, 10589 Berlin, Germany Abstract This paper presents AutomotiveArchitect, an environ- ment for the design of the architectures of automobile E/E (Electric/Electronic) systems. With the capacity of the in- frastructure platform, the user inputs a functional speci- fication of the system under design in a familiar format like those provided by UML, SysML, EAST ADL or AU- TOSAR models. In a three-step partitioning process, Au- tomotiveArchitect resolves the relationships that exist be- tween the elements of the specification and applies a clus- tering algorithm on the remaining atomic software compo- nents to define the optimal configuration of the system’s ar- chitecture. The results of an industrial application are com- mented. 1 Problem presentation One of the most challenging operations in the develop- ment of automotive E/E (Electric/Electronic) systems is the design of their architecture. During this operation, the de- signer must find the optimal configuration of the hardware platform and the most profitable exploitation of the avail- able resources. More concretely, the number and the topo- logical positioning of the electronic components that are necessary to execute the system’s functionalities must be defined and the system’s working load must be distributed within the available resources. This activity is called the partitioning. Following the components-oriented design scheme that is actually practiced in the automotive design, the partitioning is reduced to conceive new components that are added to the system, i.e. each hardware component is conceived for a given predefined set of functions, new func- tions are implemented on new components that are plugged on the existing system without changing its software con- tents. This way to act has the great advantage that it main- tains the existing architecture of the system that is already a proved reliable and dependable configuration of the sys- tem with a stable communication matrix, each modifica- tion of which might be equivalent to a design from scratch, unacceptable in this fast-evolving industry where new fea- tures become rapidly customary, making the time-to-market an important success factor. But, a direct consequence of this optimistic design approach is the high number of elec- tronic control units (ECU) and communication buses that increases the costs of the vehicles. With this design ap- proach, too many functions are unnecessarily redundantly implemented and inappropriately partitioned. With the increase of the demand for electronic-actuated features in automotive systems, the number of software components to implement in E/E systems will continue to grow dramatically. In order to continue to build safe, well- functioning and cost-effective vehicles, a more efficient de- sign approach is necessary to achieve the economy of the hardware resources, the power and the fuel consumption, to reduce the maintenance efforts of the vehicles, etc. and to globally reduce the cost of the design. The partitioning is the key operation to do that. However, these goals can be achieved only within a system-oriented design approach, provided that the software architecture of the system can be designed independently from both the hardware plat- form and the resource allocation. The AUTOSAR initiative proposes a system-oriented partitioning of atomic software components with standardized interfaces [4]. With this so- lution, it will be possible to shift a function from a device to another one and so, more efficient system’s architectures can be achieved. In this context, a good partitioning must minimize the inter-devices communication, the production, the procurement, the maintenance costs, etc. and maximize the sharing of the hardware resources [8]. The design cost is also an important factor of the cost of automotive systems. In the current practice, the parti- tioning is done manually by highly experienced designers, usually called system integrators. During the partitioning, such a designer must take hundreds of often contradictory, opposite and competitive constraints into account. Keeping INFOS2008, March 27-29, 2008 Cairo-Egypt © 2008 Faculty of Computers & Information-Cairo University SE-40