AccSiM: State-Aware Simulation Acceleration for Simulink Models

Simulink has been widely used in embedded software development, which supports simulation to validate the correctness of models. However, as the scale and complexity of models in industrial applications grow, it is time-consuming for the simulation engine of Simulink to achieve high coverage and detect potential errors, especially accumulative errors. In this article, we propose A<sc xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">cc</small>S<sc xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">i</small>M, an accelerating model simulation method for Simulink models via code generation. A<sc xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">cc</small>S<sc xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">i</small>M generates simulation functionality code for Simulink models through simulation oriented instrumentation, including runtime data collection, data diagnosis, and state-aware acceleration. The final simulation code is constructed by composing all the instrumentation code with actor code generated from a predefined template library and integrating test cases import. After compiling and executing the code, A<sc xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">cc</small>S<sc xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">i</small>M generates simulation results including coverage and diagnostic information. We implemented A<sc xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">cc</small>S<sc xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">i</small>M and evaluated it on several benchmark Simulink models. Compared to Simulink’s simulation engine, A<sc xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">cc</small>S<sc xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">i</small>M shows a <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$215.3\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula> improvement in simulation efficiency, significantly reduces the time required for detecting errors. Furthermore, through the state-aware acceleration method, A<sc xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">cc</small>S<sc xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">i</small>M yielded an additional <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2.8{\times }$ </tex-math></inline-formula> speedup. A<sc xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">cc</small>S<sc xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">i</small>M also achieved greater coverage within equivalent time.