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Staccatotm should be considered for all microprocessor and microcontroller embedded applications; 8-bit through 32-bit. |
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| Lean, Green Finite State Machines for Embedded Software No RTOS Required! | |||||||||||||||
| FAQ Tutorials Commentary Articles Contact Mapletech Productions LLC | |||||||||||||||
| FAQs |
| What are the benefits
in using the Staccato™ Software Design Method? How difficult is it to learn and use Staccato™ for my next project? What are the advantages to using Finite State Machines (FSMs) to design modules? Is the Staccato™ Design Method appropriate for all embedded system platforms and development environments? Is the Staccato™ Design Method appropriate for a 'multiprocessor/multicore' hardware platform? How does Staccato™ handle device interrupts? How does the Staccato™ Software Architecture compare with UML 2.0 Statecharts? |
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Q. What are the benefits in using the Staccato™ Software Design Method? A. Customers benefit by
more reliable and better performing products, designed to their
requirements and specifications. Embedded Product developers benefit by
having a consistent design method, which is easy for multiple software
and hardware engineers to learn, use, and maintain (through good
documentation) product software. Q. How difficult is it to learn and use Staccato™ for my next project? A. Staccato™ is first a
design method for embedded systems. That means proper documentation of
Requirements and Designs, along with Test Plans and Validation and
Verification. As part of this overall approach to good design practices,
Staccato™ also provides the 'System Core' which requires your embedded
system application to be properly partitioned into application tasks,
each of which is designed as a Finite State Machine, which is directly
coded into your modules. The Executive and System Calls pull it all
together to give you excellent performance, and ease of maintenance. The
concepts are easy to learn, and will provide a better understanding of
how 'software' is nothing more than an extension and abstraction of the
hardware. The Staccato™ Crossroads Software Development Kit (SDK)
includes (2) IEEE CEU Certified courses, a Demo Project with C-source
code and complete project documentation, all of which will provide you
with all you need to start a new project. Q. What are the advantages to using Finite State Machines (FSMs) to design modules? A. State Machines (FSMs)
are the best way to describe the sequential behavior of a system
component or attribute. State Diagrams can be used to convey the
system's behavior in response to both internal and external events and
conditions. The analysis of most source-code would reveal, to the
knowing eye, the existence of some aspect of sequential operations.
Unfortunately, this occurs more of a necessary artifact, as opposed to a
direct design method, usually resulting in a poorly structured system
that can be very difficult to maintain. The basic concept of a state
machine is: if a specified event has not occurred, than nothing needs to
be performed for this task. If it has occurred, then perform some action
and transit to the next defined state, to continue the sequential
process for this task. The Staccato™ Design Method is based almost
entirely on 'direct coding' of these powerful State Diagrams. Their
usage is what allows for excellent performance of your embedded
software. For more information on this subject, check out the provided
Staccato™ Tutorials here... Q. Is the Staccato™ Design Method appropriate for all embedded system platforms and development environments? A. Yes. The Staccato™
Design Method is appropriate for all target platforms. The System Core
is written in the 'C' language, although it's constructs can be encoded
in any language that supports these constructs. No special 'tools' are
needed other than a compiler/linker for your target processor. Staccato™
is appropriate for all embedded software systems: from 8-bit
microcontrollers through embedded PC. Check the Products Page for device
platforms currently offered for Staccato. No RTOS is required. Q. Is the Staccato™ Design Method appropriate for a 'multiprocessor/multicore' hardware platform? A. The Staccato™ Design
Method is based on a multiple processor architecture. Each 'application'
task has it's own 'soft, virtual processor', which, along with the
task's state machine process code, is analogous to a single processor
system. In this manner, Staccato™ performs as a 'system of directly
executed Finite State Machine (FSM)-encoded tasks'. Your entire set of
application/FSM tasks can therefore be distributed across multiple
processors. The only limitation to implementing such a design is the
hardware architecture and software development tools. This approach
works well with single processors as well. Q. How does Staccato™ handle device interrupts? A. In addition to basic
system timer interrupts, many systems provide hardware interrupts from a
variety of devices, such as a serial communication device. Because of
the excellent performance inherent in a system using Staccato™, your
device Interrupt Service Routine (ISR) usually only needs to register,
or flag the interrupt event to the device handler task, with minimal
processing within the ISR. The corresponding task will be in a state
where it can respond to this interrupt event appropriately. Because
tasks are executed at such a high rate within the Staccato™
architecture, handling frequent device interrupts in this manner is
recommended. However, for stricter timing requirements, there is no
restriction on performing the necessary processing within the ISR. Q. How does the Staccato™ Software Architecture compare with UML 2.0 Statecharts? A. The Staccato™ Software
Architecture is based on a 'system of Finite State Machines (FSMs)',
where, after proper partitioning, each software task is implemented as a
Finite State Machine. Each state of a task's state machine is encoded as
a single 'C' function, which is executed through completion by the
Staccato™ Executive. UML 2.0 Statecharts is based on the work of David
Harel, in which he describes a method for the 'visual formalism for
complex systems'. StateCharts uses the concept of hierarchical state
machines (HSMs), along with other concepts such as orthogonality, to
provide the means to visually describe the behavior of an entire complex
software system. Although intended as visualization method, products do
exist that claim to translate StateChart representations into executable
code. These methods typically assume that the resulting FSMs will be run
on an RTOS/multihreaded platform, where events are captured and
dispatched by the OS to an event queue for use by the appropriate tasks.
In the Staccato™ Architecture, an RTOS is simply not needed, and each
task performs its own event processing within its state machine code. |
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