A System Composer™architecturerepresents a system of components and how they interface with each other structurally and behaviorally. You can represent specific architectures using alternate views.

Different types of architectures describe different aspects of systems:

A System Composermodelis the file that contains architectural information, including components, ports, connectors, interfaces, and behaviors.

Perform operations on a model:

A System Composer model is stored as an SLX file.

Acomponentis a nontrivial, nearly independent, and replaceable part of a system that fulfills a clear function in the context of an architecture. A component defines an architectural element, such as a function, a system, hardware, software, or other conceptual entity. A component can also be a subsystem or subfunction.

Represented as a block, a component is a part of an architecture model that can be separated into reusable artifacts.

Aportis a node on a component or architecture that represents a point of interaction with its environment. A port permits the flow of information to and from other components or systems.

There are different types of ports:

Connectorsare lines that provide connections between ports. Connectors describe how information flows between components or architectures.

A connector allows two components to interact without defining the nature of the interaction. Set an interface on a port to define how the components interact.

Aninterface data dictionaryis a consolidated list of all the interfaces and value types in an architecture and where they are used.

Local interfaces on a System Composer model can be saved in an interface data dictionary using theInterface Editor. Interface dictionaries can be reused between models that need to use a given set of interfaces, elements, and value types. Data dictionaries are stored in separate SLDD files.

Adata interfacedefines the kind of information that flows through a port. The same interface can be assigned to multiple ports. A data interface can be composite, meaning that it can include data elements that describe the properties of an interface signal.

Data interfaces represent the information that is shared through a connector and enters or exits a component through a port. Use theInterface Editorto create and manage data interfaces and data elements and store them in an interface data dictionary for reuse between models.

Adata elementdescribes a portion of an interface, such as a communication message, a calculated or measured parameter, or other decomposition of that interface.

Data interfaces are decomposed into data elements:

Avalue typecan be used as a port interface to define the atomic piece of data that flows through that port and has a top-level type, dimension, unit, complexity, minimum, maximum, and description.

You can also assign the type of data elements in data interfaces to value types. Add value types to data dictionaries using theInterface Editorso that you can reuse the value types as interfaces or data elements.

Anowned interfaceis an interface that is local to a specific port and not shared in a data dictionary or the model dictionary.

Create an owned interface to represent a value type or data interface that is local to a port.

Anadapterhelps connect two components with incompatible port interfaces by mapping between the two interfaces. An adapter can act as a unit delay or rate transition. You can also use an adapter for bus creation. Use theAdapterblock to implement an adapter.

With an adapter, you can perform functions on theInterface Adapterdialog: