API interfaces editor

This is Kactus2 extension


API interface (application programming interface) means the protocol that SW components use to communicate, in practice it is set of function calls. Purpose is to increase portability by abstacting the details of underlying HW. These are a lower level concept than COM interfaces and cannot appear in HW components. API interfaces make rather tight coupling between SW components, and often both the sender and receiver are mapped on the same CPU. COM interfaces are meant for communication between application modules, whereas API interfaces are mainly between application and platform (OS, drivers) and inside the platform.

For example, a SW component could have API interfaces 'lower' and 'upper'. It requests the 'lower' one, DMA driver, i.e. calls its functions. At the same, this component 'provides' the 'upper' interface, MCAPI, i.e. other SW components can call its functions.
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