TwinSpace

In modern software development, Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines are essential for maintaining high code quality and accelerating release cycles. However, applying these principles to embedded systems, particularly in the automotive domain, poses unique challenges due to hardware dependencies and limited runtime environments. This article introduces TwinSpace, a research project designed to bridge this gap by integrating CI practices into the embedded software development process. TwinSpace enables early performance evaluation through automated measurement workflows that function even before executable code is available. By incorporating TwinSpace tools into CI pipelines, the framework allows for continuous performance monitoring and data-driven hardware selection. This approach not only enhances transparency regarding performance behavior during development but also helps detect inefficient implementations early, paving the way for more efficient and reliable embedded software systems in the automotive industry.

Automotive software still follows long V-Model cycles where key design choices are validated late, causing slow feedback and costly rework. Rapid prototyping shortens this loop by evaluating algorithms and load behavior early – ideally across multiple target platforms. The proposed “TwinSpace” enables this via digital twins described by a Load Profile Description Language (LPDL), letting teams virtualize components and run realistic execution profiles without full system integration. This makes it easy to compare platform options, assess performance implications, and optimize resources upfront. TwinSpace is process-agnostic, but in the V-Model it specifically closes the left-to-right feedback gap, enabling faster, safer iterations. Bottom line: earlier validation, platform-independent virtual prototyping, and greater confidence – bringing agility to otherwise rigid development frameworks.

To evaluate the non-functional characteristics of software systems, individual software components must be integrated into a complete system. This is comparatively easy in the TwinSpace universe – the twins are functionally independent and available as integrable C code. However, to approximate the original system closely enough, the OS and middleware layers need to be reconstructed.

Software twins enable the integration of new software components in development stages that require both confidentiality and flexibility. Their effectiveness is directly tied to their ability to mirror the resource consumption of the original system. Mimicking timing of instructions, memory access patterns, and task scheduling accurately is not a trivial task.