Metropolis: an integrated electronic system design environment

TLDR

Current electronic‑system design relies on disjoint tools and informal human interactions, leading to costly iterations and escalating risk as embedded software complexity grows. The Metropolis project aims to create a unified framework to address these challenges. Using a formally semantic metamodel, Metropolis offers an integrated environment that supports simulation, formal analysis, and synthesis for complex electronic‑system design.

Abstract

Today, the design chain lacks adequate support, with most system-level designers using a collection of unlinked tools. The implementation then proceeds with informal techniques involving numerous human-language interactions that create unnecessary and unwanted iterations among groups of designers in different companies or different divisions. The move toward programmable platforms shifts the design implementation task toward embedded software design. When embedded software reaches the complexity typical of today's designs, the risk that the software will not function correctly increases exponentially. The Metropolis project seeks to develop a unified framework that can cope with this challenge. Based on a metamodel with formal semantics that developers can use to capture designs, Metropolis provides an environment for complex electronic-system design that supports simulation, formal analysis, and synthesis.