1. How to download and install TASTE ?
  2. Supported architectures and platforms
  3. What are the requirements of TASTE ?
  4. What is the license of TASTE ?
  5. Can I use the TASTE toolchain in a commercial product ?
  6. What are the key technologies of TASTE ?
  7. Where can I find documentation about TASTE ?
  8. My application models are not supported by TASTE, how can I deal with this issue ?
  9. How can I update each tool of TASTE ?
  10. How can I contribute to TASTE ?


1 - How to download and install TASTE ?

(back to the top of page)


TASTE is distributed in the form of a pre-configured virtual machine running on top of the Linux Debian 6 operating system.

TASTE comprises several tools which can also be installed and used independently from this virtual machine (e.g. ASN.1 compiler, etc.).

The TASTE virtual machine

Download the virtual machine image and execute it with VMWare player. The VMWare image is a complete system that contains all required software, tools and libraries to use the TASTE toolchain.
To download the VMWare image of TASTE, please go to our download section.
You will also need the VMWare player software, it is available at this address :
http://www.vmware.com/download/player/

Download each tool separately
You can also download each tool of TASTE separately and install them on your machine so that you don’t have to use an emulator/virtualisation software. In that case, you have to download by yourself each component of the TASTE toolchain :
- The TASTE tools from Ellidiss (to be downloaded on the Ellidiss website)
- The DMT tools (that include the ASN1 software from Semantix) from the semantix website.
- Ocarina, from the download section of this website

Download policy
Download is freely available for visitors from ESA-members (to get more information about ESA members, please visit this page).
For non-ESA members, we invite you to fill a form, indicating your personal details so that we will be able to give you an access to your software according to the ESA distribution policy.



2 - Supported architectures and platforms

(back to the top of page)

Development platform
TASTE is distributed in the form of a virtual machine image. This makes it compatible virtually with all modern operating systems - the only requirement being to be able to run a virtual machine (VMware player exists for Windows, Linux, Mac - Virtualbox is also capable of running VMware images).

Target platforms
TASTE is able to produce code for the following operating systems and architectures :
- Linux/x86 (both 32 and 64 bits).
- Linux/Xenomai (Real-Time Linux)
- RTEMS/x86 (the i386 BSP)
- RTEMS/SPARC (the LEON2, LEON3 and ERC32 BSP)

In addition, generated code is also provided for a virtual architecture, called Native. This means the code runs on the development host. In general, all POSIX-compliant operating systems would be able to compile and execute our generated applications.

Supported devices

- Linux with C generated code

  • Ethernet network under Linux
  • Serial port (UART) under Linux
  • Spacewire (StarDundee brick) under Linux
  • NE2000 driver under RTEMS
  • RASTA board on LEON boards : works for the spacewire and serial interfaces
    - OpenRavenscar with Ada generated code
  • RASTA board on LEON boards : works for the spacewire and serial interfaces.



3 - What are the requirements of TASTE ?

(back to the top of page)
To be able to use TASTE you need a virtual machine player (VMware player, which is available for free).

4 - What is the license of TASTE ?

(back to the top of page)

As the TASTE toolchain is separated in several components, each of them has a different license :

  • The graphical TASTE tools from Ellidiss (for the edition of the Interface, Deployment or Concurrency views) are released under a commercial license. However, you can download the tools on Ellidiss website.
  • The ASN1 tools and the orchestrator from Semantix are available on a dedicated section of their website. These tools are under a dual-license that allows you a free of charge use for non-commercial products. However, you’ll have to pay if you want to design commercial products with these tools.
  • Ocarina is released under the GPL license and so, is free of charge.
  • TASTE GUI and buildsupport are released under European Space Agency license (ESA). You can use them as long as you are in a country that funds ESA work.

For all questions releated to the TASTE license, please contact us.



5 - Can I use the TASTE toolchain in a commercial product ?

(back to the top of page)

The TASTE toolchain is available with several components (ASN1 code generators, TASTE graphical interface, buildsupport, TASTE GUI, etc...) that are licensed under specific licenses. Some components (especially the one released under the GPL license) can be reused free of charge. Others would require special agreement, especially the one developed under an exclusive ESA contract.

The best way to deal with a commercial use of TASTE would be to contact us. We will help you and detail the conditions for reusing each component and provide licensing details. In addition, we can help you to get some support for third-party software useful for TASTE (RTDS, ...).




6 - What are the key technologies of TASTE ?

(back to the top of page)

The TASTE development process uses the following key technologies :
- ASN.1 for data modelling ;
- AADL for architecture description, automatic system configuration and deployment ;
- SDL, SCADE and Simulink for application-level autocode.
- VHDL
- C, and Ada languages

ASN.1
The ASN.1 language gives you the ability to describe all the messages your subsystems exchange with their environment.

AADL
The AADL language is used to describe system logical and physical architecture. It is used as a backbone language to capture the system interfaces and make the link with the ASN.1 model. On the deployment part, the AADL language language is used to describe configuration and deployment concerns (how many computers/nodes are used in the system, how functions are distributed, etc.).

Application-level models
SDL, SCADE and Simulink are used as application-level modelling languages. They describe system behavior and implement system functions and use the types defined using ASN.1. It is also possible to implement the software behaviour using standard C and Ada languages.



7 - Where can I find documentation about TASTE ?

(back to the top of page)

Documentation and Tutorial on TASTE

Documentation about ASN.1 data modeling

Documentation about AADL architecture modeling



8 - My application models are not supported by TASTE, how can I deal with this issue ?

(back to the top of page)

Currently, TASTE can integrate application code written with legacy language (Ada, C) or application-level languages. Supported application levels are :
- Simulink
- SCADE Suite
- SDL with ObjectGeode (no longer supported by its provider) and RTDS

If you want to integrate another application language, you can contact us so that we discuss for supporting it in our toolchain.

Supporting other code generators
Currently, TASTE supports code generators from tools-vendors. However, some projects (such as GENEAUTO) aims at producing code from application-level models with free-licensed software. TASTE is currently being improved to support these tools so that our users would be able to auto-generate application code without installation any proprietary software.



9 - How can I update each tool of TASTE ?

(back to the top of page)

There is two possibilities to keep your installation up-to-date.

If you are running the TASTE tools within the Virtual Machine,
we provide (the VMWare image), you just have to invoke the script Update-TASTE.sh. This script will automatically download and install the latest version of the tools. This is the easiest way to keep a clean, up-to-date and supported installation.

If you installed TASTE tools with the installer program,
you just need to invoke the taste-installer program in a terminal. It will start the installation procedure again and update the tools you need to update.

If you are running the tools natively on your computer,
you have to update each tool by your own. It means that you have to download and install each updated version of the tools.
We provide nightly builds for each tool (see the download section) so that you can update with the latest version of each tool and use new functionalities. However, we don’t provide any support on such configuration because the errors you can experience can be related to your own setup.



10 - How can I contribute to TASTE ?

(back to the top of page)

TASTE is a project funded by the European Space Agency and developped by several companies and institutes from industry and academia worlds. It was initiated with an open perspective, meaning that anyone who would like to contribute is welcome. Also, its development is very active and involves many developers. You can contribute to the project in different ways :
- By joining our discussion and propose ideas
- By submitting code and patches for software improvement
- Send bug reports or feature requests

If you have an idea to improve our toolchain, just let us know. Please contact us so that we can either give you an access to our code repository or our bug tracker. Keep in mind that the project is very open and all potential contribution would strenghten the whole development process.








© Copyright ESA 2007. All rights reserved.

Sponsoring







a



For a reliable
and scientific
approach
in system
and software
engineering