It is hard to find a system today that does not rely on microelectronics. The increasing pervasiveness of electronics in systems is due to the fact that electronic techniques and digital signal processing continue to displace other modes of control. The complexity of these systems is exponentially growing, driving an explosion in the cross-domain interactions required, putting traditional design and verification methodologies at risk. The result is a significant increase in the potential for catastrophic errors in both the business and product function domains. New solutions are needed to manage functional allocation, drastically reducing risk while accelerating the design and verification of these complex systems.
While model-based systems engineering (MBSE) is not a new topic in microelectronics, acceptance has been slow within mainstream design flows, even as other industries have seen significant adoption. The reasons behind this are varied but may include: the scope of specifications when spanning the breadth of electronics software and hardware; the complex nature of changes needed in a system design; the lack of specificity on what implementation is required; limitations of existing tools and method; and a limited understanding of what is at stake until it is too late. The good news is that many of the core elements to enable MBSE methodology exist today in microelectronics. Bringing together a unified contextual view of the challenges and strategies for incremental adoption, microelectronic system design can realize its full MBSE potential. The reality is that in microelectronics, MBSE can be achieved through evolution rather than revolution.
This is happening at a critical time as the increasing complexity is stretching design teams to a breaking point. In this presentation we will look at examples of how we can adapt existing design and verification best practices as the foundation for an MBSE solution; create new linkages between data and flows to realize significant gains and predictability; examine how new solutions for requirements traceability and hybrid modeling can accelerate the design and decomposition of complex systems; and the importance of continuous verification to ensure correctness of the integrated system.
Ultimately, the aim is to design systems, identify potential problems early in the process, and act on them as soon as possible. Siemens is the only company providing a comprehensive MBSE approach that includes solutions for microelectronics within complex systems, enabling incremental adoption to maximize benefits while minimizing disruption to development teams.