Multiple Views of Architecture Styles
One way that styles may be composed is what we will term multiple views.
In this approach, different styles of architecture diagrams are used to
describe different aspects of the same collection of source modules. The
different architecture styles and diagrams are really different abstractions
that allow a separation of concerns. This may allow a decomposition of the
development process into simpler steps, may allow different requirements to be
more clearly and thoroughly dealt with separately, and may allow different
technologies and skills to be applied within the same product in a more
integrated and efficient manner. The figure below illustrates this, where
block diagram and real-time process architecture styles are used to provide alternative
views into the same implementation. The block diagram view shows the signal
flows between control operators, where the hierarchical structure reflects the
control engineer's view of the external word and the control algorithm. The
real-time process diagram shows how the source modules for the operators are
allocated to periodic processes that execute at the various rates, and how
periodic data samples flow between these processes. The two views enable
different engineering disciplines to more easily evaluate a system with
respect to different issues and requirements, in the first case with respect
to control performance and robustness and in the second case with respect to
software/hardware partitioning and binding and real-time scheduling.
Our
ControlH and MetaH architecture specification languages
can provide these types of alternative views of a system, for example.
