May 8, 2006 -- A modeling language that can represent every aspect of an electronic system - including software and electrical or mechanical hardware - has long seemed an impossible dream. But advocates of the System Modeling Language, which took a major step toward standardization in late April, say that vision is now at hand.

SysML is a general-purpose modeling language aimed at systems engineers. The language can specify, analyze, design and verify complex systems, including hardware, software, data, personnel, procedures and facilities. "Systems" the language can model range from the inner workings of a cell phone to an entire wireless telephone network.

Both a subset to and extension of the Unified Modeling Language, a graphical language for software developers, SysML puts behavior, structure, analysis and requirements in a single, integrated systems model. Though SysML's advocates and creators come almost exclusively from the world of embedded software, they now hope to build bridges to hardware design, including systems-on-chip.

By Richard Goering, Senior Editor Electronic Engineering Times.