Des Autom Embed Syst (2008) 12: 261–292
DOI 10.1007/s10617-008-9028-9
UML for electronic systems design: a comprehensive
overview
Yves Vanderperren · Wolfgang Mueller · Wim Dehaene
Received: 28 August 2007 / Accepted: 17 July 2008 / Published online: 21 August 2008
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2008
Abstract UML has been widely accepted by the software community for several years. As
electronic systems design can no longer be seen as an isolated hardware design activity,
UML becomes of significant interest as a unification language for systems description com-
bining both HW and SW components. This article provides a comprehensive view of the
UML applied to System-on-Chip (SoC) and hardware-related embedded systems design.
The modeling concepts in the UML language are first introduced, including major diagrams
for the representation of the behavior and the structure of systems. The principles behind
application specific UML customizations (UML profiles) are summarized, and several ex-
amples relevant for SoC design are given, such as the SysML (System Modeling Language)
and the SoC Profile. Thereafter, various approaches associating UML with existing HW/SW
design languages are presented. Beyond language aspects, the article addresses the question
of UML-based design flows, and shows how UML can be applied concretely to the de-
velopment of electronic-based systems. The current situation about tool support constitutes
the last focus of the article. In particular, we show how UML tools can be combined with
well-known simulation environments, such as MATLAB.
Keywords UML · SysML · Model-based design · System specification · Modelling
languages
1 Introduction
Larger scale designs, increased mask and design costs, ‘first time right’ requirements and
shorter product development cycles motivate the application of innovative ‘System on a
Y. Vanderperren ( ) · W. Dehaene
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (ESAT–MICAS), Leuven, Belgium
e-mail: yves.vanderperren@esat.kuleuven.be
W. Mueller
Paderborn University (C-LAB), Paderborn, Germany