Tool Support to Implement LOTOS Formal Specifications

Abstract LOTOS is a specification language that aims to describe the dynamic behavior of complex systems. To a large extent, LOTOS semantics is operational, which gives an opportunity to execute the specifications. There may be several targets in specification execution, three of which are considered in the paper: rapid prototyping, system testing, and real product derivation. The outstanding problem is to map abstract entities onto real entities, both to effectively act on the environment, and to allow the environment to influence specification behavior. For a final product, performance must be assessed too, as well as other non-functional requirements. The paper describes the opportunities provided by TOPO, a compiler from LOTOS into either C or Ada code. Supported features are described and wrapped into a method. Performance figures are provided too, in order to make estimates on realization performance after the specification style.