Low-Level Profiling and MARTE-Compatible Modeling of Software Components for Real-Time Systems

In this paper, we present a method for (a) profiling of individual components at high accuracy level, (b) modeling of the components with the accurate data obtained from profiling, and (c) model conversion to the MARTE profile. The resulting performance models of individual components are used at the component composition (design) phases for detailed evaluation of the performance of the designed system. Furthermore, the profiled models serve as a valid source for architecture optimization of the composed system. The presented method is a constituent part of our complete Design Space Exploration (DSE) methodology [1, 2], which involves modeling of individual components, component composition, performance analysis of the designed composition, and architecture optimization. The contribution of this new profiling method is attractive in various ways: (a) The profiling is fast and detailed, which leads to accurate models, (b) it is generic, since it allows multiplatform execution and (c) it can be used by MARTE-based analysis tools, due to the model compatibility. Our discussed experiment has resulted in cycle-accurate models in less than 1 hour profiling effort per component.