Project Profile

The ITEA 2 AMALTHEA project is

developing a consistent, open and
expandable tool platform for automotive
embedded-system engineering based
on model-driven methodology. Specific
features will include support for
multi-core systems combined with
AUTOSAR compatibility and product-line
engineering. The resulting tool platform
will be distributed under an Eclipse
public license.
Driver-assistance functions and pollution
control in modern cars are performed
increasingly by embedded software
systems. This has required a continuous
increase in computing power while also
meeting demands for reduced energy
and lower costs. Multi-core technology
is therefore being used increasingly in
automotive electronic control units (ECUs)
to handle such needs.
However, software-intensive and embedded
automotive systems pose new challenges
to development environments. There is
an increasing demand for complexity,
performance and reliability for the
development results. Tools are expected
to offer compliance to industry standards,
transparency, auditability, performance and
usability.
PARALLEL-PROCESSING ENVIRONMENTS
One of the biggest challenges for
automotive systems particularly for
ECUs is the shift to parallel-processing
platforms. ECU software development
processes have to be extended to support
multi-core platforms and to cover the high
number of variants up to the production line.
However, existing applications cannot
benefit immediately from multi-core ECUs
as they are not designed to run on such
architectures. In addition, applications and
systems have to be migrated into AUTOSAR
the open and standardised architecture
for automotive software, jointly developed
in Europe by automobile manufacturers,
suppliers and tool developers and being
adopted globally. New development
environments are needed to meet these trends.
Moreover, as automotive systems are
always produced with a high number of
variants, many companies have adapted
a product-line approach which is poorly
supported by current development
environments. AMALTHEA is therefore
developing a new tool platform which takes
all these aspects into account and provides
comprehensive support for product-line
engineering from requirements engineering
to product configuration.
Ultrasonic sensors for safe lane changes & predictive brake assist (source: Robert Bosch GmbH)
Model-based approach to
automotive systems
Expandable open platform supports
AUTOSAR-compatible multi-core systems
and product line engineering

AMALTHEA
(ITEA2 ~ 09013)

n Partners
Delphi
Dortmund University of Applied
Sciences and Arts
ETAS
ifak
Inno-W
itemis
Metso Automation
Mobilera
Nokia Siemens Networks
Regensburg University of Applied
Sciences/LaS
Robert Bosch GmbH
Timing-Architects
TOFA Trk Otomobil Fabrikas
University of Oulu
University of Paderborn
n Countries involved
Finland
Germany
Turkey
n Project start
July 2011
n Project end
December 2013
n Contact
Project leader :
Karlheinz Topp, Robert Bosch GmbH
Email :
karlheinz.topp@de.bosch.com
Project Profile
COMPLETE TOOL CHAIN
The ITEA 2 project is developing a complete
tool chain olatform and a development
process based on model-driven software
engineering to structure and simplify the
development work. Multi-core central
processing unit support throughout the
whole design flow will help address
advanced performance and reliability
requirements. These will be met by
integrating the most promising approaches
into one continuous design flow.
Such a tool chain with the related design
flow will be a major innovation for the
automotive domain. Moreover, AUTOSAR
compliance will guarantee a development
result according to the most important
automotive software standard. The resulting
tool chain will be based on the Eclipse
open-source project. The open-source
approach will help guarantee transparency
and long-term maintenance of the results.
The AMALTHEA platform will support:
n Development of software for multi-core
systems;
n Handling of large volumes of data;
n Configuration of automotive software
systems;
n Code generation for target hardware
systems;
n Interfaces to multi-core timing
simulation and software partitioning
tools;
n Test management and test generation
tools based on established standards;
n A continuous tool chain; and
n Compliance with standards.
The tool platform will support a method for
parallelisation of the software in embedded
systems so that an optimised mapping of
software components to cores is possible.
In addition to the parallelisation of the
software components, the communication
of the components and the dependencies
between the components can be simulated.
The architecture of the tool chain and the
platform is shown in the picture below.
COVERING ALL DEVELOPMENT ASPECTS
The AMALTHEA tool platform will support
all aspects of the development cycle.
While addressing the automotive domain
predominantly, it will be extensible to
telecommunications to deal with such
systems in their native environment
and integrated into a car. It will also be
possible to simulate parallel systems and
support debugging of multi-core systems.
Configuration tools for product lines and
multi-core variants will also be included in
the tool chain.
Requirements management for safety
aspects will also be possible to support the
safety-critical nature of most automotive
ECUs. The tool chain will include data-
description tools and editors as well as
support for visualisation tools, graphical
editors and hardware-software co-design.
Support will also be provided for verification
and validation of the systems with
provision of optimal multi-core real-time
scheduling and formal validation of timing
requirements. The result will be an open
tool platform. This will be available both
as open source under the Eclipse public
license and for integration with existing
or new tools either on a company-specific
basis or with commercially available tools.
EUROPEAN BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES
Car making is a major European industry
with global supply chains. The major impact
of this ITEA 2 project will be a reduction in
development costs and the building of a
de-facto standard development environment
platform. Costs will be reduced by sharing
effort for developing and maintaining the
tools.
Moreover, there will be new business
opportunities created around the tool
platform such as services for adoption
of the platform and integration of existing
or newly developed extensions. The
availability of an open-source development
environment with specific features for the
automotive domain such as AUTOSAR
compatibility will also open up the
automotive market for newcomers and
speed the development of new functions
for cleaner, safer and more comfortable
vehicles.
AMALTHEA Platform
ITEA 2 Office
High Tech Campus 69 - 3
5656 AG Eindhoven
The Netherlands
Tel : +31 88 003 6136
Fax : +31 88 003 6130
Email : info@itea2.org
Web : www.itea2.org
n ITEA 2 Information Technology
for European Advancement is
Europes premier co-operative R&D
programme driving pre-competitive
research on embedded and
distributed software-intensive systems
and services. As a EUREKA strategic
Cluster, we support co-ordinated
national funding submissions and
provide the link between those who
provide finance, technology and
software engineering. Our aim is to
mobilise a total of 20,000 person-
years over the full eight-year period of
our programme from 2006 to 2013.
n ITEA 2-labelled projects are
industry-driven initiatives building
vital middleware and preparing
standards to lay the foundations
for the next generation of products,
systems, appliances and services.
Our programme results in real product
innovation that boosts European
competitiveness in a wide range of
industries. Specifically, we play a key
role in crucial application domains
where software dominates, such as
aerospace, automotive, consumer
electronics, healthcare/medical
systems and telecommunications.
n ITEA 2 projects involve
complementary R&D from at least two
companies in two countries. We issue
annual Calls for Projects, evaluate
projects and help bring research
partners together. Our projects are
open to partners from large industrial
companies and small and medium-
sized enterprises (SMEs) as well
as public research institutes and
universities.
October 2011
AMALTHEA
(ITEA2
~

09013)