The Physical View

The specification which uses state charts and activity-charts in the form of a conceptual model is a quality foundation but it is not a real system. What is missing is a means for defining the system from a physical implementation perspective and a means to be sure in which the system is implemented in a way which is true to that specification. The important category of this is describing the physical decomposition of the system and its relationship to the conceptual model.

Physical aspects are treated in Stalemate using the language of module-charts. The terms module and physical are used commonly to indicate components of a system, whether software, hardware or hybrid. Such activities in an activity-chart modules are arranged in a hierarchy to show the decomposition of a system into its subcomponents and components. The Modules are connected through flow lines that one can think of as being the carriers of information among modules.