| "How can I find a solution to increasingly complex problems?" |
Handling complexity requires adopting a higher abstraction level and following a systematic design process.
SLD (System-Level Design) takes you to a higher abstraction level where complexity is easier to dominate. CoFluent Studio allows you to model a system at the message abstraction level, above transaction and transfer levels.
CoFluent Studio's top-down approach facilitates problems resolution by breaking-out complexity domains and guiding designers through an incremental process, avoiding direct confrontation against the whole and inhibiting system complexity. |
| "How can I jointly specify the hardware and software parts of my system?" |
Hardware/software co-design allows you to adopt a system-level design approach, considering hardware and software problems at the same time.
CoFluent Studio was thought and built for co-design and gives you all you need to design your system as a whole: a common environment and common notations. Definition of the hardware or software nature of the elements of your design comes once the system functions are defined in complete isolation from any technology considerations. |
| "How can I get more confidence on the design decisions I take?" |
CoFluent Studio acts as decision guidance system and helps you gain more confidence on crucial design decisions you take. It completes your expertise and experience with hard data obtained by evaluation tools processing simulation results.
With CoFluent Studio, you model a system and verify it behaves in conformance to specifications and it delivers on the expected performances. |
| "How can I execute and verify my design solution against system specifications?" |
At every stage of the design process, you can execute models created with CoFluent Studio, even if you don't write a single line of code.
Simulation results are graphical or numerical. You observe the evolution of the significant parameters of your system over simulation time and compare them with the specifications.
Within the same environment, you develop test cases against typical or edge scenarios that send input stimuli to your system so you can analyze its reaction. You can add logical models that emulate the behavior of any element of the system or the environment. |
| "How can I separate the system's functions from its physical architecture?" |
Very early on the project, CoFluent Studio lets you model a system in complete independence from any implementation or technological considerations. The functional model represents the system's ideal architecture, with no physical or resources constraints. Pure logical functions of the system are verified by simulation before the model is refined to take into consideration physical constraints.
The system's executive or physical structure (the hardware) is designed separately and then, logical elements of the functional model are mapped to physical components.
Both models are developed and maintained separately for easier change management. |
| "How can I decide between hardware or software implementation?" |
| Performances analysis helps you decide whether a function should be implemented in hardware or software based on execution time constraints and other parameters such as costs analysis deducted from design decisions and simulation results. |
| "How can I quickly and easily try different architectural options for the same system?" |
| Once you develop your system's functional model, any function can be mapped as hardware or software element. You can create multiple configurations with different mapping and allocation strategies, and select the best architecture. You can study the influence of design parameters (e.g. bus bandwidth, processor speed, size of data) at simulation-time by tuning interactively model variables. |
| "What performances can I expect from my system?" |
| CoFluent Studio delivers detailed performances results such as: CPU utilization, request response time, communications throughput/latencies and function execution time. |
| "How can I share my vision with developers and better communicate my architectural decisions?" |
| Thanks to CoFluent Studio, you create executable models that show no ambiguity in their behavior and let no room for interpretation. System organization, data structures, timing information, hardware/software partitioning and hardware components are precisely specified. Developers can generate code automatically from your model and use it as basis for their developments. |
| "How can I federate hardware and software teams around a common reference model?" |
| CoFluent Studio's models are adapted to both hardware and software design activities. Notations are simple and intuitive; generic concepts are easily understood by hardware and software engineers. All they need to know is C programming basics. |
