iFEST will specify and develop an integration framework for establishing and maintaining tool chains for engineering of complex industrial embedded systems; a significant technical
contribution in the field of embedded systems technology.
Specific emphasis is placed on open tool chains targeting HW/SW co-design for heterogeneous and multi-core solutions, and life cycle support for an expected operational life time of several decades.

iFEST results will demonstrate a potential reduction by 20% of both time-to-market and engineering lifecycle costs, including cost of poor quality.

iFEST will enable engineers to explore the architectural design space at a high level of abstraction, select a cost effective design, and from the abstract models produce semiautomatically
the hardware and software implementations in a cost effective balance.

A major innovation in this respect is the targeted integration of tools from the world of model driven engineering with traditional HW/SW co-design tools.

Several iFEST industrial case studies will validate the integration framework and two tool chains, for control and streaming applications. The project will define and validate a set of tool integration technologies that will be used to integrate various combinations of tools into a tool chain. The integration framework will permit tools to be readily replaced within the tool chain; thus dealing with issues such as tool obsolescence and tool lock-in.

iFEST will promote standardisation of project results to encourage industrial up-take, aligned with the ARTEMISIA Work Groups on standardisation and tool platforms.

iFEST will bring the industry from a state where efficient tool usage in practice is low, to a state where innovative products and services can be designed much more efficiently due to
well-functioning tool chains. Having a greatly improved design capacity will create new markets and redefine existing ones for industrial embedded systems.