Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Realizing EQL programs for bounded-time excution

  • Computer-Aided Prototyping
  • Published:
Journal of Systems Integration

Abstract

Predicting programs' response time (the longest execution time) has been a challenging task, especially for rule-based programs, in which the control flows are not obvious. To facilitate our study on this problem, we chose the EQL language as our target rule-based language. An EQL program can be thought of as an operator in a prototype system description language such as PSDL. In this paper we show how to generate executable code from an EQL rule-based program and to verify its timing behavior. We have developed a suite of packages to derive response-time bounds for EQL programs. Such timing analysis tools can be used in timing verification for program prototypes in the early stage of software development. The response-time bounds are derived in three steps: First an EQL program is translated into an equivalent C program, which can then be compiled for execution. The translated C program is also used as input to a timing-analysis tool to get execution time information for each rule firing. To derive a response-time bound of the program, the EQL program and the rules' firing-time information are used by a response-time analyzer. In this paper we describe the functionalities of these packages, with emphasis on the EQL-to-C translation. An EQL program example is also used throughout this paper to demonstrate the procedures.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. M. Benda, “Real-Time Applications of AI in the Aerospace Industry”, Presentation at the Fall School on Artificial Intelligence, the Research Institute of Ecole Normal Superieure, France, Sep. 1987.

  2. K.M. Chandy and J. Misra, 1988.Parallel Program Design: A Foundation, Addison-Wesley.

  3. M. Chen,The Dataflow Real-Time System: A Case Study, Master's Thesis, Dept. of Computer Sciences, Univ. of Texas at Austin, 1987.

  4. A. M. K. Cheng, “EQL: A Rule-Based Language for Programming Real-Time Decision Systems”, technical report, Dept. of Computer Sciences, Univ. of Texas at Austin, Mar. 1989.

  5. C.L. Forgy, “OPS5 User's Manual”, technical report CMU-CS-81-135, Dept. of Computer Science, Carnegi-Mellon University, 1981.

  6. J.J. Helly,Distributed Expert System for Space Shuttle Flight Control, Ph.D. Dissertation, Dept. of Computer Science, UCLA, 1984.

  7. D. Koch, K. Morris, C. Giffin, and T. Reid, “Avionic Sensor-Based Safing System Technology”, Presentation at the Tri-Service Software System Safety Working Group in association with IEEE COMPASS Conference, 1986.

  8. T.J. Laffey, P.A. Cox, J.L. Schmidt, S.M. Kao, and J.Y. Real, “Real-Time Knowledge-Based Systems”,AI Magazine, Spring 1988.

  9. Luqi, V. Berzins, and R. Yeh, “A Prototyping Language for Real-Time Software”,IEEE Trans. Software Eng., pp. 1409–1423, Oct. 1988.

  10. Luqi, “Handling Timing Constraints in Rapid Prototyping”,Proc. the 22nd Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Science, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, pp. 417–424, 1989.

  11. Luqi, “Real-Time Constraints in a Rapid Prototyping Language”,Computer Language, vol. 18 no. 2, pp. 77–103, 1993.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. A.K. Mok, “Formal Analysis of Real-Time Equational Rule-Based Systems”,Proc. the 10th Real-Time Systems Symp., Dec. 1989.

  13. A.K. Mok, R.P. Amerasinghe, M. Chen and K. Tantisirivat, “Evaluating Tight Execution Time Bounds of Programs by Annotations”,Proc. the Sixth Workshop on Real-Time Operating Systems and Software, Pittsburgh, May 1989

  14. C.A. O'Reilly and A.S. Cromarty, “Fast” is not “Real-Time”: Designing Effective Real-Time AI Systems”,SPIE Applications of Artilligence II 548:249–257, 1985.

    Google Scholar 

  15. C.J. Paul, A. Acharya, B. Black and J.K. Strosnider, “Reducing Problem-Solving Variance to Improve Predictability”,CACM, August 1991.

  16. K. Tantisirivat,Timetool-Graphical Timing Analyzer. Master's Thesis, Dept. of Computer Sciences, Univ. of Texas at Austin, 1987.

  17. D.-C. Tsou, “Developing Diagnostic Models for the ALMR Local Reactivity Controller”, technical report, Dept. of Computer Sciences, Univ. of Texas at Austin, revised October 1993.

  18. R.-H. Wang and A.K. Mok, “Response-Time Bounds of EQL Rule-Based Programs under Rule Priority Structure”,IEEE Trans. Software Engineering, vol. 21, no. 9, July 1995.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, 78712-1188, Austin, TX

    Aloysius K. Mok & Rwo-Hsi Wang

  2. Intel Corporation, 5200 NE Elam Young Pky, HF3-64, Hillsboro, OR, 97124

    Chih-Kan Wang (Editor)

Authors
  1. Aloysius K. Mok
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Rwo-Hsi Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Chih-Kan Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Luqi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Mok, A.K., Wang, RH., Wang, CK. et al. Realizing EQL programs for bounded-time excution. Journal of Systems Integration 6, 73–92 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02262752

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02262752

Keywords

Search

Navigation