These are objects executable by the kernel and responsible for the core functionality of the system. The modeling system is not only able to instruct the kernel to instantiate and execute a set of modules, but it also has means to describe operational parameters for them. These software modules are application-specific, and, since they constitute the most computationally intensive part, performance is given a top priority here. A self-adaptive system must contain monitoring, decision making, and configuration modification functionality. The EMI system provides capabilities for each of these three tasks.
Monitoring requires the presentation of operational parameters in a convenient fashion.
A common feature of these parameters is that they are application-specific, and their values are usually highly dependent on the environment of the embedded system. Our decision was to use the embedded models as a place for uniform representation of these parameters. The task listed third, configuration modification, is supplied by generative models and generators described in the previous chapter. This way, the model designer can efficiently control the degrees of freedom in the model by providing generators where adaptive modifications in the model are foreseen. Model changes made by the generators are translated towards the kernel by the embedded interpreter.