Device and method for integrating software components into a distributed time-controlled real-time system

1. A method for integrating software components of a distributed real-time software system on a device, said software components of the distributed real-time software system being run on target hardware and on a development system, wherein the target hardware comprises computing nodes, and wherein the development system comprises one or more computers, the method comprising:

configuring the device as an expanded development system in which the computing nodes of the target hardware are connected to the one or more computers of the development system via one or more time-triggered distributor units, wherein the expanded development system has a sparse global time of known precision, and wherein the computing nodes of the target hardware are connected to the one or more computers of the development system via the one or more time-triggered distributor units such that data content of a time-triggered message template of a time-triggered platform of the target hardware is configured to be provided in a timely manner both by a simulation process of the development system as well as by an operative process of the target hardware, wherein the time-triggered message template comprises an abstraction of a time-controlled message; and

implementing an integration of the software components in multiple phases, wherein during a first phase of the integration, (i) the time-triggered message template, which is exchanged between parallel executable software components, is specified and (ii) the time-triggered platform, in which periodic transmission and reception times of the time-triggered message template are defined, is formed by the time-triggered message template, wherein the data content of the time-triggered message template is first provided by the simulation process and later by the operative process during phases of the integration which follow, and wherein during a final phase of the integration, the data contents of the time-triggered message template are provided by the operative process.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising defining activation signals for starting the software components during the first phase of the integration.

3. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising monitoring, by the time-triggered platform, a defined central processing unit run-time of the software component on the target hardware.

4. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

defining, by the time triggered platform, memory areas for data structures of the software component; and

monitoring, by the time triggered platform, access by the operative process to the memory areas.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the abstraction of a time-controlled message in which attributes of the time-triggered message template are specified as follow: period duration, message length, message sender, and message receiver.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the time-triggered message template is configured to be specified when processing times of the operative process on the target hardware and transport times of the time-triggered message template that is exchanged between the software components are defined.