SCOOP and SCOOP-IX. ETAS INTECRIO

ETAS

6

SCOOP and SCOOP-IX

SCOOP and SCOOP-IX

This chapter contains a concept for the description, management and exchange of C code interfaces. The description and exchange of code interfaces is a very important topic in the context of INTECRIO since the interfaces for integration are of significant importance.

In the framework of the embedded control software, the smooth integration of simple C code is affected by the fact that certain semantic pieces of information are not part of the standard C code:

• Implementation data, such as conversion formula, minimum, maximum and limitation for C variables as well as return values and arguments of

C functions,

• Grouping information for characteristic values (lookup tables) represented by several C arrays with disjointed definitions or embedded in

C structures ( struct ),

• Information about use that indicate whether an element is intended for measurements or calibration with running experiment, and

• Origin of the model and specific data (e.g. model name, physical unit, embedded component or block, notes, use as message, process, signal or parameter), particularly for automatically generated source files.

Furthermore, additional information is more or less obviously "hidden" in the

C code and cannot easily be extracted:

• Memory classes that are written to by non-standard target-specific

#pragma instructions, and

• Attributes of C variables or C functions that are written to by non-standard target-specific modifiers such as inline or far .

The concept introduced in this chapter that is used to collect all the necessary interface information and make it available, is referred to as SCOOP ( S ource

Co de, O bjects, and P hysics ).

The approach of SCOOP essentially consists of an interface description language (roughly comparable with known interface description languages such as ARXML 1 or that of CORBA 2 and COM from Microsoft) and tools for creating, managing and using the interface descriptions.

The interface description language SCOOP-IX

(see also section 6.2 "The

SCOOP-IX Language" on page 121) is intended for the detailed collection of all

the information about interfaces in a wider sense. SCOOP-IX descriptions can be used for the data exchange between tools or supplied together with open or compiled C code for later integration.

1. AUTOSAR XML

2. Common Object Request Broker Architecture, developed by the Object Management Group (OMG, see http://www.omg.org/ )

INTECRIO V4.7 - User’s Guide 120