Graphical State Machines Built Into ASCET-DEVELOPER

The tool

ETAS ASCET-DEVELOPER is a tool for developing application software for embedded systems using graphical models and textual programming notations. ASCET-DEVELOPER Code Generator translates function models into highly efficient and safe embedded C-Code for AUTOSAR and non-AUTOSAR applications.

Background and challenge

ETAS faced the challenge of integrating graphical state machines into the new version 7 of ASCET-DEVELOPER. Instead of developing a graphical state machine editor on their own, they decided to entrust itemis AG to do the integration based on the solution itemis CREATE.

Fortunately, itemis CREATE was developed with this requirement in mind. It is not only an off-the-shelf tool to develop state machines but it is also an open and customizable component which can be reused within existing tools and development environments.

The flexible architecture provides integration points that can be used to extend the default behavior. Those extensions can be done at the language level (textual and graphical), the semantic level (how the state machines executes) and the code level (what is generated from a state machine).

Service provided by itemis

For ETAS, itemis adopted itemis CREATE on all three different levels. Within ASCET-DEVELOPER, itemis implemented a round-trip integration to read and write ASCETs’ Embedded Software Development Language’ (ESDL).

Benefit for ETAS

Now, ASCET-DEVELOPER models can be developed using either text or graphics, allowing developers to choose the right notation for the job. The result is a seamless integration of graphical state machine modeling. From an end users point of view it feels like a native part of ASCET-DEVELOPER.