"Each pattern describes a problem which occurs over and over again in our environment, and then describes the core of the solution to that problem, in such a way that you can use this solution a million times over, without ever doing the same thing twice." [Christopher Alexander et. al., "A Pattern Language : Towns/Buildings/Construction", 1977]

 

Even if the above definition actually refers to design patterns in architecture, it applies likewise to general design pattern. There design patterns as to being described by Gamma et.al., have proven as appropriate means to increase the efficiency in the software development and in particular fosters reuse. The potential of design pattern results from the fact that certain constellations of objects have proven as particularly elegant solutions in the design of complex systems. Design pattern represent thus general templates of such "good solutions".

 

Within the scope of the project "Design Pattern for embedded systems (DEPES)" is to examine, whether and if so which design patterns can be used for the design of embedded systems. Thereby it will be necessary to analyse and modify existing design pattern from the software domain and also to define completely new patterns. The latter appears necessary, because the patterns desired can contain hardware as well as software components. The characteristics of embedded systems, like interaction of hardware and software parts over dedicated interfaces, as well as the inherent parallelism of hardware and its static character, must be considered in the design pattern. Due to the probably high number of design patterns, they should be formally described and organized. Altogether we hope to gain insights about how design pattern can simplify the design of embedded systems, by giving generally applicable and therewith reusable templates to the developer.