A Reuse Method of Large-scale Embedded Software Based on Inter-module Relations
Hidetoshi Kambe, Shinji Kitagami, Shigeki Nankaku, Jun Sawamoto, Hiroyasu Mitsui · 2014
Embedded software is starting to play a key role in almost every modern consumer electronic device. As demand for software is growing, the lines of code that must be developed tend to increase; moreover, much shorter development time is required. Software installed in such electronic equipments used to be a simple micro-processor firmware to control the hardware, but dedicated OSs, such as Linux are adopted and comes to realize high level processing. It is also becoming increasingly inevitable that existing embedded software system will be reused. In this paper, we propose a method to accomplish the effective composition of embedded software function by managing dependency information among modules. The method analyses mutual relations among existing modules and visually presents not only inter-module dependency but also a list of available reusable modules based on the developer’s demand. It also improves the development process by maintaining the development management property information for each source file and using the property information in the reuse process. We have developed a configuration management system that integrates proposed functions to support large-scale embedded software development by efficient software reuse. We evaluated the method by applying it to some actual developments.