The Assert Set of Tools for Engineering (TASTE): Current Features, Demonstrator and Future Evolution

This paper reports the results of a project funded by ESA on the use and development of TASTE (The ASSERT Set of Tools for Engineering). TASTE is a set of tools which aims, ruled by a clear methodology, to ease and secure the building of Real-Time Embedded (RTE) systems. The first goal of this project was to face TASTE with an industrial study case, the realization of a satellite demonstrator, so as to confirm its maturity level. Technologies, design and application scenario of the demonstrator was chosen to be very realistic. The second goal of the project was to extend TASTE abilities by adding hardware/software codesign capabilities to the toolset. Many RTE systems are software and hardware, adding such codesign capabilities to TASTE greatly spread the range of targeted systems. With this project, we have been able to demonstrate that TASTE is clearly an answer to the "missing link" between high level system description and equipments design, for systems ranging from simple software-only systems to complex hardware/software codesigned systems.