Abstract In recent years, multi-level modeling has become more and more popular. It is mainly due to the fact that multi-level modeling aims to reduce or even totally eliminate any accidental complexity inadvertently created as by-product in traditional model design. Moreover, besides reducing model complexity, multi-level modeling also improves on general comprehension of models. The key enablers of multi-level modeling are the concepts of clabjects and deep instantiation. The latter is often governed by the potency notion, of which many different interpretations and variations emerged over the years. However, there exist also some approaches that disregard the potency notion. Thus, multi-level modeling approaches tend to take advantage of different theoretical and practical backgrounds. In this paper, we propose a unifying framework, the Multi-Level Modeling Playground (MLMP), which is a validating modeling environment for multi-level modeling research. The MLMP environment is based on our multi-layer modeling framework (the Dynamic Multi-Layer Algebra), which provides useful mechanisms to validate different multi-level modeling constructs. Since beyond the structure also the well-formedness rules of the modeling constructs can be specified, our proposed MLMP environment delivers several practical benefits: i) well-formedness is always verified, ii) multi-level constructs can be experimented with independently of any concrete tool chains, and iii) relationships (i.e., correlations or exclusions) between different multi-level constructs can be easily investigated in practice. Also, the capability of the environment is demonstrated via complete examples inspired by state-of-the-art research literature.

In recent years, a wide range of tools and methodologies have been introduced in the field of multi-level meta-modeling. One of the newest approaches is the Dynamic Multi-Layer Algebra (DMLA). DMLA incorporates a fully self-modeled textual operation language (DMLAScript) over its tuple-based model entity representation. This textual language provides effective and complex features when editing models. On the other hand, the language supports the precise injective mapping of the multi-layers. However, such complexity comes at a price. Using DMLAScript can be difficult in practice for users who are only familiar with the classical, object-oriented way of thinking, and are not confident with the multi-level approach. In this paper, we introduce the concepts of a new language above DMLAScript, which supports the more effective manipulation of concrete domain models by taking advantage of the particular process of multi-level modeling within DMLA. Although the approach is technically bound to DMLA, the concepts discussed in the paper are of general use.

Nowadays, applications must often handle a large amount of data and apply complex algorithms on it. It is a promising and popular way to apply the computation in parallel in order to meet the performance requirements. Since GPUs are designed to apply highly parallel computations efficiently, using CPU+GPU heterogeneous architecture have gained an increasing popularity in computation intensive applications. Model-driven development (MDE) is a widely used software development methodology in the software industry. MDE is heavily building on model transformations in converting and processing the models. Graph transformation-based model transformation is a popular technique in this field. It is based on isomorphic subgraphs matching, which often require serious computing power. Currently, model transformation tools are not capable of using the computation power of the GPUs. Our research goal is to create a general model matching and later a model transformation solution, which can take the advantages of the computation power of the GPUs. We are now focusing on pattern matching of the transformations. We would like to create a general solution which is independent of the hardware vendor; therefore, our method is based on the OpenCL framework. The novelty of this paper is a GPGPU-based pattern matching tool and some accelerating techniques to achieve faster computation. In this paper we present an overview of the solution and test results based on one of the biggest freely available movie database (IMDb). The main properties such as the performance and the scalability are discussed. The applied architecture and the steps towards the final solution are also included in the paper.

The core idea of metamodel-based model construction is well established. However, there are different metamodeling approaches relying on various modeling structures and instantiation procedures. Although, in general, these approaches offer similar features, they are sometimes incompatible with each other. Therefore, a precise abstract definition of instantiation is needed. The paper describes an abstract modeling framework, which is easily customizable in order to adapt it to different multi-level modeling techniques. The framework consists of an abstract modeling structure, basic built-in constructs, and a dynamic instantiation procedure. The paper demonstrate the flexibility of the approach by a specific bootstrap that is explicitly designed for the rebalancing of the node-edge antagonism, which is mostly the origin of many reification patterns applied in current meta-model designs. Although the proposed solution to the node-edge dichotomy is only an example of our multi-level meta-modeling approach, it is per se a valuable achievement showing that it can be done in a more elegant manner than it is usually expressed in other state-of-the art modeling frameworks.

Modern industrial control applications gradually take advantage of well-defined state-of-the-art distributed software architecture principles and framework designs, including corresponding modeling techniques. Moreover, the advent of this new era goes way beyond current modeling tool-chains via the application of mature meta-model driven software engineering paradigms. In the frame of the Arrowhead ARTEMIS project these techniques are to showcase the synergies between multi-level meta-model driven design and SOA based dynamic model-aware run-time framework components. This paper reports on the on-going engineering efforts in this domain by showing the generic architecture and by explaining some of the current implementation details through a prototypical tool-chain and a simple model example.

Domain-Specific Modeling has gained increasing popularity in software modeling. Domain-Specific Modeling Languages can simplify the design and the implementation of systems in various domains. Consequent domain specific visualization helps to understand the models for domain specialists. However, the efficiency of domain-specific modeling is often determined by the limited capabilities -- i.e. the lack of interactive design elements, low customization facilities -- of the editor applications.

With the introduction and popularity of wireless devices, the diversity of the platforms has also been increased. There are different platforms and tools from different vendors such as Microsoft, Sun, Nokia, SonyEricsson and many more. This paper introduces the problem of the software development for incompatible mobile platforms, and provides a Model-Driven Architecture (MDA)-based solution. In the presented approach the platform-independence lies in the graph rewriting-driven visual model transformation. This work illustrates the creation of model compliers on a metamodeling basis by a software package called Visual Modeling and Transformation System (VMTS), which is an n-layer multipurpose modeling and metamodel-based transformation system. A case study is also presented how model compilers can be used to generate user interface handler code for different mobile platforms from the same platform-independent input models.