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Integrating Rhapsody® into Customer Platform

Complex development tasks, limited resources, and deadline pressure. To deal effectively with these challenges, the Research Department of Schindler recently switched to Model Driven Development with Rational Rhapsody® from IBM. EVOCEAN supported the project team in integrating the UML tool into the existing development infrastructure and target platform.

The Challenge

Schindler Aufzüge AG is a globally active manufacturer of elevators and escalators. Schindler owes its leading market position in part to its successful implementation of new technologies. But time cycles for developing new products and bringing them to market are being squeezed more tightly even as cost pressure grows. To meet these challenges with limited resources, the company decided early in 2008 to create a consistent and transparent development environment. An important consideration was the ability to rapidly implement the new solution into existing infrastructures.

The Solution

An analysis of the situation showed that the only way to achieve the ambitious goals was by using Model Driven Development with Rational Rhapsody®. This UML-based tool ensures a completely consistent reusable model up to and including the code on the target platform and integrated debugging.

  • UML with Rational Rhapsody® from IBM
  • Target platform with Coldfire and several CAN interfaces
  • IDE GNU / C++
  • RTOS eCosCentric
  • Lauterbach Trace32 debugger.

Seamless integration gives users the best of both worlds by combining the advantages of Model Driven Development with those of traditional debugging.

  • Early testing of the application thanks to executable models (can be used hardware-independently)
  • Complete code generation from models to target platform
  • Direct switching from model debugging to hardware debugging.

The Role of EVOCEAN

EVOCEAN is an “Advanced Business Partner” of IBM in Switzerland. As a Rational Rhapsody® competence center, we have not only access to all tools, but also to the internal know-how and knowledge pool of the Rhapsody® developers. Our team of consultants has broad technical knowledge and many years of experience in the area of Model Driven Development.

This background allowed us to provide highly effective support for Schindler in integrating Rhapsody®:

  • Consulting to select a development environment
  • Clarification of outstanding items and risk evaluations
  • Comprehensive checklists for starting a project efficiently

Integration of Rational Rhapsody® into customer specific development environments and target platform

  • On-site integration and on-the-job training
  • Know-how transfer and exchange of experience
  • Fixed cost and schedule.

Added Value for Customers

Model Driven Development with Rational Rhapsody® radically simplifies software development and helps customers to get a handle on the complexity and risks of a project quickly.

Efficient collaboration with the Schindler project team ensured integration on time and in budget. Both parties were able to apply their strengths and experience optimally in the project.

Looking Ahead

With the integration of the complete development environment future software components will be developed more effectively. To be able to use animation on the model level via the debugger JTAG interface on the target as well, the availability of a development target with more RAM is being evaluated. This would make it possible to benefit from additional advantages of Model Driven Development.

Customers about our services

Bernina International AG

„For Bernina, abstraction, simulation, reuse and automatic code generation are central for a short time-to-market … and therefore the key of our success!"

Giovanni Annunzio

System Architect

Commentaire sur nos formation – Rhapsody

Le formateur a été très bien préparé, a une excellente vue d'ensemble et une connaissance approfondie de l'outil et des processus et méthodes environnants (A-Spice).

Grand fournisseur automobile

Ingénieur systèmes

SIX Financial Information Ltd

“Our vision was to know at all times in which process phase a change is.”

Michael K. Steinhöfel-Cordova

Head of Quality Management

Mettler Toledo AG

„I would recommend Rhapsody anytime – by using Rhapsody I can reach a new level of programming and efficiency.“

Wolfgang Boos

Head Software Development

Rhapsody Training Feedback

The trainer was very well prepared, has an excellent overview and deep knowledge about the tool and about our surrounding processes (A-Spice) and methods.

Large Automotive Supplier

Systems Engineer

Schleuniger AG

„Thanks to the fully automatic code generation with Rhapsody® we could accelerate the software development.“

Thomas Nyffenegger

Team Lead Software

Kern AG

„Even if the change to Rhapsody required at first additional investment and effort – we have never regretted our decision. The fully automatic code generation from the model makes our life easier!“

Andreas Dubach

Head of Development Systems

Mettler Toledo AG

„Now the advantages of our solid foundation work will have a large impact. A model is easy to adapt and maintain and new functions can be integrated very fast. In combination with the automatic code generation and testing we now will be strikingly faster… with a consistent high quality. Today we save time and money – not least thanks to IBM Rational Rhapsody!"

Wolfgang Boos

Head of Software

Bernina International AG

„Thanks to the models we can visualise new functions and dependencies. A picture says more than a 1'000 words and the graphically modelled abstraction makes life much easier for us developers. At the same time, the automatic code generation based on the models takes over a substantial part of our work!“

Giovanni Annunzio

System Architect

Mettler Toledo AG

„Development in the embedded area should be platform independent and the used tools should support this!“

Wolfgang Boos

Head Software Development