AMADEUS: ASPECTS AND COMPILER OPTIMIZATIONS FOR MATLAB SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

[December 1st, 2007-November 30th, 2012]

[MATLAB COMPILER] (to be available)

	Abstract
	MATLAB is a high-level, interpreted, domain-specific language (DSL), mainly based on matrix data types and operations on them. The MATLAB environment, the richness of the language, the existence of domain-oriented packages, and the associated software tools, make the language one of the preferred choices to model and simulate complex systems (it is widely used in scientific computing, control systems, signal and image processing, system engineering, etc.). More than 800 books dedicated to MATLAB attest to its wide adoption. Suitable MATLAB properties include no need to declare variables (floating-point double precision representation is the default data type), operator overloading, function polymorphism and dynamic type specialization. However, tasks such as exploiting non-uniform fixed-point representations, monitoring certain variables during a timing window, or including handlers to watch specific behaviors are extremely cumbersome, error-prone and tedious. Each time these features are necessary, invasive changes on the original code, as well as insertion of new code need to be performed. This problem is felt in other implementation issues as well, since MATLAB can be regarded as a specification rather than an implementation language. Other open issues are related to efficient automatic synthesis of MATLAB specifications to a software language or a hardware description language. This project addresses the enrichment of MATLAB with aspect-oriented extensions to include additional information (e.g., type and shape of variables) and to experiment different implementation features (e.g., different implementations for the same function, certain type binding for variables, etc.). The proposed aspects aim to configure the low-level data representation of real variables and expressions, to specifically-tailored data representations that benefit from a more efficient support by target computing engines (e.g., fixed- instead of floating-point representations). The approach also aims to help developers to introduce handlers (code triggered when certain conditions may occur and with a richer functionality than assertions) and monitoring features, and to configure function implementations. We believe aspect-oriented extensions will help system modeling, simulation, and exploration of features conceiving system implementation. One of the advantages is related to the fact that a single version of the specification can be used throughout the entire development cycle rather than maintaining multiple versions, as is currently the case. The project includes research on: - aspect mining on MATLAB specifications to identify crosscutting concerns in a system, to enable migration of existing MATLAB specifications to aspect-oriented ones; - type inference analysis and memory minimization techniques to generate high-performance code and to achieve highly–abstract aspects; - specification and implementation of a declarative language to complement MATLAB with aspect rules. To automate the approach, a prototype weaver that generates optimized MATLAB code from input MATLAB specifications and aspect rules will be developed. Evaluation of the approach will be based on benchmarks from a number of domains and on MATLAB specifications from industry (space applications).
Main Achievements
- An aspect-oriented approach for complementing MATLAB programming; - The design of A-MATLAB, a new aspect domain-specific language (DSL) for MATLAB programs; - Aspect mining over MATLAB complex programs; - A framework for compiling MATLAB code to C code ready for embedded systems; - Te use of aspects to guide the MATLAB to C compiler in order to achieve efficient code; - Dataflow to Petri Nets models and the C code generation from Petri Nets;
Funding:
- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT): http://www.fct.mctes.pt - FCT reference: PTDC/EIA/70271/2006
Contact:
João M. P. Cardoso Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Engenharia (FEUP) Departamento de Engenharia Informática Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, s/n 4200-465 Porto Portugal Email: jmpc@acm.org http://www.fe.up.pt/~jmpc

Participants

Publications

MSc Thesis, Posters, and Technical Reports

Institutions:

Members:

- João M. P. Cardoso, UP/FEUP

- Adriano Sanches, UP/FEUP

- Anikó Katalin Horváth da Costa, UNINOVA

- João Alexandre Baptista Vieira Saraiva, UM

- João Miguel Lobo Fernandes, UM

- José Inácio Pinto Rosado Rocha, UNINOVA

- Luis Filipe dos Santos Gomes, UNINOVA

- Miguel Jorge Tavares Pessoa Monteiro, FCT/UNL

- Pedro Miguel Ribeiro Martins, UM

- Ricardo Jorge Ferreira Nobre, UP/FEUP

- Rogério Alexandre Botelho Campos Rebelo, UNINOVA

- Rui Manuel Carvalho Pais, UNINOVA

- Tiago Diogo Ribeiro de Carvalho, UP/FEUP

- Helder Nuno Ribeiro Macedo, UM

- Luís Miranda da Cruz, UP/FEUP

- Paulo Alexandre da Silva Lopes, UM

- Prakher Anand, UM

Collaborators:

- Pedro C. Diniz, INESC-ID, Lisboa, Portugal

- Alexandre Delbem, USP, Brasil

Books:

1. João M. P. Cardoso, and Pedro C. Diniz, Compilation Techniques for Reconfigurable Architectures, Springer, 234 p., Outubro de 2008, ISBN 978-0-387-09670-4.

Book Chapters:

1. Pedro C. Diniz, and João M. P. Cardoso, Code Transformations for Embedded Reconfigurable Computing Architectures, in Generative and Transformational Techniques in Software Engineering III, International Summer School, GTTSE 2009, Braga, Portugal, July 6-11, 2009, Revised Papers, Fernandes, J.M.; Lämmel, R.; Visser, J.; Saraiva, J. (Eds.), LNCS 6491, Springer, Heidelberg, 2011, pp. 322-344.

2. Monteiro M.P., Fernandes, J.M. Aspect-oriented Refactoring of Java Programs. Book chapter accepted for publication in “Java in Academia and Research”, iConcept (Ke Cai, editor).

Articles related to Tutorials:

1. Pedro C. Diniz, João M. P. Cardoso, “Compilation for Embedded Reconfigurable Computing Architectures,” GTTSE 2009: Pre-proceedings, Generative and Transformational Techniques in Software Engineering, João M. Fernandes, Ralf Lammel, João Saraiva, Joost Visser (eds.), June, 2009, Braga, Portugal, pp. 293-314.

Journal Papers:

2. João M. P. Cardoso, Pedro Diniz, and Markus Weinhardt, Compiling for Reconfigurable Computing: A Survey, ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), Vol. 42, No. 4, Article 13, June 2010, pp. 1-65.

International Conference/Workshop Papers:

1. Pedro Martins, Paulo Lopes, João P. Fernandes, João Saraiva, and João M. P. Cardoso, “Program and Aspect Metrics for MATLAB,” in 12th International Conference on Computational Science and Applications (ICCSA 2012), June 18-21, 2012, Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, LNCS Springer (to appear).

2. João M. P. Cardoso, Tiago Carvalho, José Gabriel de F. Coutinho, Wayne Luk, Ricardo Nobre, Pedro C. Diniz, Zlatko Petrov, “LARA: An Aspect-Oriented Programming Language for Embedded Systems,” in International Conference on Aspect-Oriented Software Development (AOSD’12), Potsdam, Germany, March 25-30, 2012. [in cooperation with REFLECT]

3. José Gabriel de F. Coutinho, Tiago Carvalho, Sérgio Durand, João M. P. Cardoso, Ricardo Nobre, Pedro C. Diniz, and Wayne Luk, “Experiments with the LARA Aspect-Oriented Approach,” in International Conference on Aspect-Oriented Software Development (AOSD’12), Potsdam, Germany, March 25-30, 2012. [demo paper] [in cooperation with REFLECT]

4. Adriano K. Sanches, João M. P. Cardoso, Alexandre C. B. Delbem, “Identifying Merge-Beneficial Software Kernels for Hardware Implementation”, in Proceedings of the International Conference on Reconfigurable Computing and FPGAs (ReConFig '11), November 30– December 2nd 2011, Cancún, Mexico, IEEE Computer Society, pp. 74-79. DOI: 10.1109/ReConFig.2011.51

5. Miguel P. Monteiro. “On the Cognitive Foundations of Modularity”. Psychology of Programming Interest Group Annual Conference (PPIG 2011), York, UK, September 2011.

6. “Bridge Expansion Joints Monitoring System”; Hugo Guerreiro, Rogério Campos-Rebelo, Luís Gomes; in INES’2011 – 15th IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Engineering Systems 2011; 23-25 June 2011, Poprad, Slovakia; DOI 10.1109/INES.2011.5954711

7. José Rocha, Luís Gomes, Octávio Dias, “Dataflow Model Property Verification Using Petri net Translation Techniques,” in INDIN’2011 - 9th IEEE International Conference on Industrial Informatics, July 26-29, 2011, Caparica, Lisbon, Portugal; DOI 10.1109/INDIN.2011.6034993

8. José-Inácio Rocha, Luis Gomes, Octávio Páscoa Dias, “Petri Net Verification Techniques on Synchronous Dataflow Models,” in IECON’2011 - The 37th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society; November 7-10, 2011; Melbourne, Australia

9. Pedro C. Diniz, and João M. P. Cardoso, “Code Transformations for Embedded Reconfigurable Computing Architectures,” in Generative and Transformational Techniques in Software Engineering III, International Summer School, GTTSE 2009, Braga, Portugal, July 6-11, 2009, Revised Papers, Fernandes, J.M.; Lämmel, R.; Visser, J.; Saraiva, J. (Eds.), LNCS 6491, Springer, Heidelberg, 2011, pp. 322-344.

10. Ricardo Nobre, João M. P. Cardoso, Pedro C. Diniz, "Leveraging Type Knowledge for Efficient MATLAB to C Translation," in 15th Workshop on Compilers for Parallel Computing (CPC'10), Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria, July 7-9, 2010. [em colaboração com o projeto VECTOR: PTDC/EEA-ELC/71556/2006]

11. Luís Gomes, Rogério Rebelo, João Paulo Barros, Anikó Costa, Rui Pais; “From Petri net models to C implementation of digital controllers”; ISIE’2010 - IEEE International Symposium on Industrial Electronics; Bari, Italy; 4-7 July 2010. DOI: 10.1109/ISIE.2010.5637670

12. João Gomes, Miguel P. Monteiro, Design Pattern Implementation in Object Teams. Proceedings of the 25^th ACM Symposium on Applied Computing (SAC 2010), special track on Object Oriented Programming Languages and Systems (OOPS), pp. 2119-2120, Sierre/Lausanne, Switzerland, March 22-26, 2010. DOI: 10.1145/1774088.1774534,

13. João M. P. Cardoso, Pedro Diniz, Miguel P. Monteiro, João M. Fernandes, and João Saraiva, "A Domain-Specific Aspect Language for Transforming MATLAB Programs," in Domain-Specific Aspect Language Workshop (DSAL'2010), part of the 9th International Conference on Aspect-Oriented Software Development (AOSD'2010), March 15-19, 2010, Rennes & Saint Malo, France.

14. Sousa E., Monteiro M.P., Implementing Design Patterns in CaesarJ: an Exploratory Study, workshop on Software Engineering Properties of Languages and Aspect Technologies (SPLAT 2008) at AOSD 2008, March 31, 2008. DOI: 10.1145/1408647.1408653

National Conference Papers:

1. Miguel Monteiro, João M. P. Cardoso, and Simona Posea, "Identification and Characterization of Crosscutting Concerns in MATLAB Systems," in 2º Simpósio Nacional na Área da Informática (INForum'10), 9-10 Setembro, 2010, Braga, Portugal. Track: CoRTA2010: Compilers, Programming Languages, Related Technologies and Applications.

MSc Thesis:

1. Paulo Alexandre da Silva Lopes (15944), “Program and aspect metrics for MATLAB: Design and implementation,” Universidade do Minho, 19 de Dezembro de 2011. [Orientador: João Saraiva, co-orientador: João Cardoso]

2. Tiago Diogo Ribeiro de Carvalho, “A Meta-Language and Framework for Aspect-Oriented Programming,” Dissertação no âmbito do Mestrado Integrado em Engenharia Informática e Computação (MIEIC), Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto (FEUP), Porto, July 2011. [orientador: João M. P. Cardoso]

3. Rogério Alexandre Botelho Campos Rebelo; “Geração automática de código ANSI C a partir de redes de Petri IOPT – PNML2C -”; Mestrado concluído em 19 Setembro 2010; UNL-FCT. [orientador: Luís Gomes]

4. Pedro Miguel Ribeiro Martins, “A Domain Specific Aspect Language for Matlab”, Universidade do Minho, orientador: João Saraiva, Dezembro de 2010. [Orientador: João Saraiva]

5. Helder Nuno Ribeiro Macedo, “A Strategic-Based Weaver for Aspect-MatLab”, orientador: João Saraiva & Jácome Cunha, Universidade do Minho, Dezembro 2010. [Orientador: João Saraiva].

Posters:

1. A Domain-Specific Aspect Language for MATLAB and its Strategic Programming Weaver, Ricardo Nobre, Tiago Carvalho, João M. P. Cardoso and Pedro Diniz, DATE’2012, Friday Workshop on Designing for Embedded Parallel Computing Platforms: Architectures, Design Tools, and Applications, March 16, 2012, Dresden, Germany.

2. LARA: An Aspect-Oriented Approach for Developing and Designing Embedded Systems, Tiago Carvalho, João M. P. Cardoso, Sérgio Durand, José Coutinho, Ricardo Nobre, Pedro Diniz, Wayne Luk and Zlatko Petrov, DITAM2012: Workshop on Design Tools and Architectures for Multi-Core Embedded Computing Platforms, January 24th, 2012, part of the Int’l Conf. on High-Performance and Embedded Architectures and Compilers (HiPEAC’2012), Paris, France on Jan 23-25, 2012. [in cooperation with REFLECT]

3. MATLAB to C Conversion Targeting Embedded Computing Systems, Ricardo Nobre, João M. P. Cardoso, and Pedro Diniz, DITAM2012: Workshop on Design Tools and Architectures for Multi-Core Embedded Computing Platforms, January 24th, 2012, part of the Int’l Conf. on High-Performance and Embedded Architectures and Compilers (HiPEAC’2012), Paris, France on Jan 23-25, 2012. [Ricardo Nobre won a student poster award]

4. MATLAB to C Conversion Targeting Embedded Systems, Ricardo Nobre, João M. P. Cardoso and Pedro C. Diniz, Generative and Transformational Techniques in Software Engineering III, Int’l Summer School, GTTSE 2009, Braga, Portugal, July 6-11, 2009

5. A Meta-Language and Framework for Aspect-Oriented Programming, Tiago Carvalho, and João M. P. Cardoso, Generative and Transformational Techniques in Software Engineering III, Int’l Summer School, GTTSE 2009, Braga, Portugal, July 6-11, 2009.

Technical Reports:

1. João M. P. Cardoso, AMADEUS ARCHITECTURE OVERVIEW, AMADEUS Technical Report, TR-AMADEUS-01-2008, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Engenharia (FEUP), July 2008.

2. João M. P. Cardoso, Pedro C. Diniz, Miguel P. Monteiro, João M. Fernandes, João Saraiva, MATLAB ASPECTS, AMADEUS Technical Report, TR-AMADEUS-02-2009, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Engenharia (FEUP), November 2009.

3. Prakher Anand, João M. Fernandes, and João Saraiva, "A Report On Construction Of Aspect Weaver For MATLAB," AMADEUS Technical Report, TR-AMADEUS-01-2009, Dep. Informática / CCTC Universidade do Minho, Campus de Gualtar, Braga, Portugal, July, 2009.

4. Ricardo Nobre, “A Modular MATLAB Compilation Framework,” AMADEUS Technical Report, TR-AMADEUS-01-2011, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Engenharia (FEUP), October 2011.

5. Ricardo Nobre, João M. P. Cardoso, Pedro C. Diniz, “Leveraging Type/Shape Knowledge for Efficient MATLAB to C Translation,” AMADEUS Technical Report, TR-AMADEUS-01-2010, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Engenharia (FEUP), October 2010.

6. Pedro Martins, Paulo Lopes, João P. Fernandes, João Saraiva, and João M. P. Cardoso, “Program and Aspect Metrics for Matlab,” AMADEUS Technical Report, TR-AMADEUS-04-2011, Dep. Informática / CCTC Universidade do Minho, Campus de Gualtar, Braga, Portugal, October 2011.

7. Tiago Carvalho, Ricardo Nobre, João M. P. Cardoso, Miguel P. Monteiro, and João M. Fernandes, “A-MATLAB: MATLAB plus Aspects,” AMADEUS Technical Report, TR-AMADEUS-03-2011, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Engenharia (FEUP), October 2011.

8. Ricardo Nobre, Tiago Carvalho, João M. P. Cardoso, Pedro C. Diniz, “MATLAB to C Translation Targeting Embedded Computing Systems,” AMADEUS Technical Report, TR-AMADEUS-02-2011, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Engenharia (FEUP), October 2011.