Architecture Analysis & Design Language


The Architecture Analysis & Design Language is an architecture description language standardized by SAE. AADL was first developed in the field of avionics, and was known formerly as the Avionics Architecture Description Language.
The Architecture Analysis & Design Language is derived from MetaH, an architecture description language made by the Advanced Technology Center of Honeywell. AADL is used to model the software and hardware architecture of an embedded, real-time system. Due to its emphasis on the embedded domain, AADL contains constructs for modeling both software and hardware components. This architecture model can then be used either as a design documentation, for analyses or for code generation, like UML.

AADL eco-system

AADL is defined by a core language that defines a single notation for both system and software aspects. Having a single model ease the analysis tools by having only one single representation of the system. The language specifies system-specific characteristics using properties.
The language can be extended with the following methods:
AADL is supported by a wide range of tools:
A complete list of the tool set can be found on the

Related Projects

AADL has been used for the following research projects:
A complete list of the past and current projects/initiatives can be found on the