System Modelling: A methodology for describing the structure of complex Software, Firmware, and Hardware systems consisting of independent process components

Abstract

This paper presents a modelling tool for analyzing, describing arid designing the structure of soft-, firm- and hardware systems, consisting of independent process components. The tool makes use of two notations: A language used for a detailed description of each process's internal operations; and a pictorial representation used to describe inter-process communication.

The tool is applied to a Disk Channel Controller, developed at Aarhus University. This example demonstrates how the tool can be used to document the functionality of a complex system, leaving decisions concerning implementation details to the actual implementors.