Model-based development in the railway domain: Siemens challenges and experiences

Interlocking systems comprise thousands of controlled elements with life cycles lasting 30 years. For their design, Siemens decided on the SCADE Suite model-based development environment. Important criteria that triggered that decision were:

• SCADE modelling language (based on formal semantics) for safety-related software embedded control applications
• Automatic code generation
• Model-level simulation
• Formal verification (complete demonstration of properties)
• A development environment including gateways to third-party tools (requirements engineering, UML architectures)

Model-based development with SCADE establishes higher efficiency, with errors being detected earlier in the design process. All in all, products reach Siemens customers faster and with the highest possible quality.