The emergence of rapid prototyping as a real-time software development tool

It is demonstrated that there is both the need and the means for rapid prototyping to establish itself as a software development tool for real-time embedded systems. The authors describe the problems that software developers face and in particular the nature of embedded real-time systems. The aims of rapid prototyping stand out quite clearly against this background. With the emergence of new concepts in software engineering, such as computer aided software engineering and object-oriented design these aims are becoming increasingly realisable as practical methodologies and tools. The authors examine some of these tools which have particular relevance to the development of real-time systems. The analysis yields several useful pointers as to the elements required of a full scale rapid-prototyping system for use in commercial industrial projects. They also outline some projects which demonstrate both the benefits and the difficulties encountered when using rapid prototyping in real-time systems