Real-Time UML: Developing Efficient Objects for Embedded Systems

It's no surprise that object-oriented analysis and design can work for embedded systems--such as those in VCRs, car engines, elevators, pacemakers, and other hardware devices--which far outnumber traditional computers. That's the argument of Bruce Douglass's Real-Time UML, which presents the latest modeling techniques using the Unified Modeling Language (UML) in the context of embedded design. This book is a successful introduction to both UML and the vagaries of embedded systems, which have their own set of pitfalls and constraints for efficiency and high reliability.

Real-Time UML is good at presenting the basics of modeling objects, from class design to object behavior, with an eye for the rich set of diagrams available in UML used along the way. Examples, from elevators to medical systems, are used to illustrate the theory.

The authors are up to speed with the latest research on "patterns" (reusable higher order designs) that can be used for embedded systems--especially within the chapters on design. It's obvious from this clearly written and comprehensive book that embedded systems can benefit from the methodology and notational strengths of UML. This manual avoids the abstraction of a lot of software engineering texts and relies on some good real-world detail for its examples. It's definitely a recommended source for any embedded-systems developer who wants to ramp up on the new details of UML.