iFEST

KTH is a key partner in this new top ranked Artemis project, focusing on integrated tool chains for embedded systems development.

The iFEST project, which started in April 2010, has 20 partners and is coordinated by ABB. The project runs for three years with a total budget of 16 MegaEuro.

As a Swedish initiative, a consortium including ABB, KTH and ENEA from Sweden, was formed and a proposal was written. The proposal was ranked no. 1 in the Artemis proposal evaluation for the 2nd call!
Artemis is the European joint undertaking and funding in the area of embedded systems, where KTH is a member (https://www.artemis-ju.eu/)

In the project, KTH will lead the work on tool-chain design and implementation, and technology and methodology for embedded system co-design. Prof. Martin Törngren is appointed as the technical coordinator of the project.

iFEST Proposal Abstract

iFEST will specify and develop an integration framework for establishing and maintaining tool chains for engineering of complex industrial embedded systems; a significant technical contribution in the field of embedded systems technology. Specific emphasis is placed on open tool chains targeting HW/SW co-design for heterogeneous and multi-core solutions, and life cycle support for an expected operational life time of several decades.

iFEST results will demonstrate a potential reduction by 20% of both time-to-market and engineering lifecycle costs, including cost of poor quality.
iFEST will enable engineers to explore the architectural design space at a high level of abstraction, select a cost effective design, and from the abstract models produce semi-automatically the hardware and software implementations in a cost effective balance.

A major innovation in this respect is the targeted integration of tools from the world of model driven engineering with traditional HW/SW co-design tools.
Several iFEST industrial case studies will validate the integration framework and two tool chains, for control and streaming applications. The project will define and validate a set of tool integration technologies that will be used to integrate various combinations of tools into a tool chain. The integration framework will permit tools to be readily replaced within the tool chain; thus dealing with issues such as tool obsolescence and tool lock-in.

iFEST will promote standardisation of project results to encourage industrial up-take, aligned with the ARTEMISIA Work Groups on standardisation and tool platforms.

iFEST will bring the industry from a state where efficient tool usage in practice is low, to a state where innovative products and services can be designed much more efficiently due to well-functioning tool chains. Having a greatly improved design capacity will create new markets and redefine existing ones for industrial embedded systems.