System and method for transforming graphical models

• US 20070067761A1
• Filed: 09/20/2005
• Published: 03/22/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The MathWorks, Inc.
• Original Assignee: The MathWorks, Inc.
• Inventors: Orofino, Donald, Kintali, Kiran, Ogilvie, Brian, Devane, Charles
• Granted Patent: US 9,774,699 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/146
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

A mechanism for converting a graphical model of a system into an intermediate representation (IR) of a model is discussed. The mechanism alters the IR, and uses the altered IR to create a new or updated graphical model of the system that may be viewed and simulated by a user. Once the user is satisfied with the alterations to the IR, the IR or the graphical model may be used to generate code in a target language to enable the building of the physical system being designed. The use of the altered IR to generate a new or updated graphical model allows a more efficient and customizable design and simulation process than is typically found by simulating code that has been converted to target languages. The generation of the graphical model based on the altered IR allows a user to visually inspect the changes to the system, and the simulation of the graphical model based on the altered IR allows corrective action to be taken to account for any changes that occurred during the transformation of the model.

Claims

1. A method of transforming graphical models, comprising:

providing a graphical model;

converting the graphical model into an intermediate representation (IR), the IR suitable for conversion to a target language;

altering the IR of the graphical model; and

converting the altered IR into a graphical model.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the IR is stored as a graph in memory.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing transformations that include operations on the IR that change the behavior of the system being modeled.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the changes are at least one of the group of numerical or latency changes.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the transformation is elaboration of the system model.

6. The method of claim 3 wherein the transformation is lowering of the system model.

7. The method of claim 3 wherein the transformation is optimization of the system model.

8. The method of claim 3 wherein the transformation is a separable plug-in process provided by a vendor.

9. The method of claim 3 wherein the transformation is a separable plug-in process provided by a user.

10. The method of claim 3 wherein the transformation is performed manually by the user.

11. The method of claim 3 wherein the transformation employs at least one user-specified configuration.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

converting the altered IR into a new graphical model.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

converting the altered IR into an updated version of the graphical model.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the altered IR is converted into a set of modifications to be applied to the graphical model to create the updated version.

15. The method of claim 1, comprising further:

performing simulation of the graphical model created from the altered IR.

16. The method of claim 15, comprising further:

generating code from the altered IR following the simulation of the graphical model created from the altered IR.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the generated code is at least one of the group of Verilog, VHDL, SystemC, C, C++, Java and M code.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the graphical model is written in at least one of the group of a block diagram language, statechart language or a graphical circuit design language.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein the graphical model based on the altered IR is written in a language different from that of the graphical model converted into the IR.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

converting the graphical model based on the altered IR into a graphical model based on a different programming language.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the graphical model based on the altered IR is converted into more than one graphical model based on a different programming language.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

converting the graphical model based on the altered IR into a textual program.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the graphical model based on the altered IR is converted into more than one textual program.

24. The method of claim 1, comprising further:

providing configurable control over user and programmatic access to the IR.

25. A system for transforming graphical models, comprising:

a graphical programming environment, the graphical programming environment including a graphical model;

a first conversion process, the first conversion process converting the graphical model into an intermediate representation (IR), the IR suitable for conversion to a target language; and

a second conversion process, the second conversion process converting an altered version of the IR into a graphical model.

26. The system of claim 25 wherein the altered version of the IR is converted into a new graphical model.

27. The system of claim 25 wherein the altered version of the IR is converted into an updated version of the graphical model that was converted into the IR.

28. The system of claim 25 wherein the altered version of the IR is created by performing transformations on the IR.

29. The system of claim 25 wherein the graphical programming environment further comprises:

a simulator, the simulator used to perform simulation of the graphical model converted from the altered IR.

30. The system of claim 25, further comprising:

a code generation process, the code generation process generating code for the graphical model based on the altered IR

31. A computer-readable medium holding computer-executable instructions for a method of transforming graphical models, the instructions comprising:

providing a graphical model;

converting the graphical model into an intermediate representation (IR), the IR suitable for conversion to a target language;

altering the IR of the graphical model; and

converting the altered IR into a graphical model.

32. The medium of claim 31 wherein the IR is stored as a graph in memory.

33. The medium of claim 31, wherein the instructions further comprise:

performing transformations that include operations on the IR that change the behavior of the system being modeled.

34. The medium of claim 31, wherein the instructions further comprise:

converting the altered IR into a new graphical model.

35. The medium of claim 31, wherein the instructions further comprise:

converting the altered IR into an updated version of the graphical model.

36. The medium of claim 31, wherein the instructions further comprise:

performing simulation of the graphical model created from the altered IR.

37. The medium of claim 36, wherein the instructions further comprise:

generating code from the altered IR following the simulation of the graphical model created from the altered IR.

38. The medium of claim 36, wherein the instructions further comprise:

generating code from the graphical model created from the altered IR following the simulation of the graphical model created from the altered IR.

39. The medium of claim 31 wherein the graphical model is written in one of the group of a block diagram language, statechart language or a graphical circuit design language.

40. A method of transforming graphical models, comprising:

providing a graphical model in a first language;

converting the graphical model into an intermediate representation (IR), the IR suitable for conversion to a target language different than the source language; and

converting the IR into a graphical model in the target language.

41. A method of transforming graphical models, comprising:

providing a graphical model in a first language;

converting the graphical model into an intermediate representation (IR), the IR suitable for conversion to a target language different than the source language;

converting the IR into a new graphical model in the first language;

simulating the new graphical model; and

converting the IR into a graphical model in the target language.