Software, Hardware, ARchitectures & Processes (SHARP)

Research areas

• Embedded systems are increasingly complex sets of communicating electronic systems (hardware) and software which require new design methods

Owing to such new applications as the IoT (connected devices), autonomous systems or, more generally, applications which require significant storage and computing means (e.g. artificial intelligence and big data), the boundary between embedded systems and their environment is disappearing, bringing uncertainty and complexity. 

Embedded systems are part of an overall entity, a much larger and more diffuse distributed information system. This forms a system of systems which interacts with its environment and is growing increasingly complex. 

• They combine heterogeneous systems or applications.
• They operate within an increasingly uncertain environment.
• They nevertheless have to meet functional and non-functional requirements (e.g. energy footprint, security, safety, temporal behavior). 

Ensuring these requirements is a challenge, taken up by the SHARP research hub: study models, methods and design support tools centered on “architecture” for these new embedded systems and their environment

The term architecture is understood in the broad sense here:

• hardware architecture on the lowest layers 
• architecture of the complete system in which the studied system is embedded
• software architecture, with major implications in terms of the consideration of application needs and software/hardware interactions. 

3 research teams who work together  

•    ARCAD: Hardware architectures and CAD tools
•    SHAKER: Software/hardware and unknown environment interactions
•    P4S: Processes for Safe and Secure Software and Systems

APPLICATIONS

All civil and military applications comprising computer and electronic systems that need to be made secure and reliable:

• Application software
• Web applications
• Embedded intelligence
• Connected devices, etc.