Wrapping of Soft IPs for Interface‐based Design Using Heterogeneous Metaprogramming

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Damaševičius, Robertas | Štuikys, Vytautas

Affiliations: Software Engineering Department, Kaunas University of Technology, Studentų 50, LT‐3031 Kaunas, Lithuania, e‐mail: damarobe@soften.ktu.lt, vystu@if.ktu.lt

Abstract: We discuss the application of heterogeneous metaprogramming (MPG) for the interface‐based design, which deals with the synthesis of the communication interfaces between Intellectual Property components (IPs). Heterogeneous MPG is based on the simultaneous usage of a domain language for describing domain functionality and a metalanguage for developing generic components and program generators. We present a design framework based on the MPG techniques. The novelty of our approach is that we apply the concept of heterogeneous MPG for the automatic generation of IP wrappers for communication between the third‐party soft IPs systematically. We present a case study for the synthesis of the communication interfaces using a FIFO protocol.

Keywords: heterogeneous metaprogramming, interface‐based design, interface synthesis, IP wrapper

Journal: Informatica, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 3-18, 2003