Modeling Embedded Systems and SoC's

Chapter Five. The Timed Model of Computation

Time is a first-class property in hardware and embedded software design. On many occasions it must be considered with great accuracy and measured in physical time units. Timing behavior is important in its own right, but it also influences functional behavior.

After discussing the importance of time we introduce a timed MoC. It is based on a generalization of the synchronous MoC from the previous chapter. Timing information is conveyed on the signals by transmitting absent events at regular time intervals. In this way processes always know when a particular event has occurred and when no event has occurred. Their sole sources of information are the input signals; no access to a global state or magic ...