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Research and Development, System Design, System Development, Methods, Cost Benefit Analysis, Specifications, Modeling, Very-Large-Scale Integration, and AT&T Bell Laboratories Inc. -- Product development

AT&T Bell Laboratories has developed a flexible, easy-to-use system, Cones, for the automatic synthesis of gate-level standard cell, programmable logic array, and programmable logic device designs from behavioral designs written in C. Design goals or existing behavioral models are input to an interactive process of partitioning, simulation, and modeling to produce behavioral models with sufficient logic detail. Cones then implements general sequential logic from the models in PLA and standard cell architectures for VLSI devices or as PLDs for prototyping and low-volume production. Advantages of the strategy include: reduction in design errors, decrease in design effort and time, only limited knowledge of the implementation technology is required, design intent can be used at a higher level of abstraction, and designers can focus on device function.

New Technique, Relational Languages, Research and Development, Methods, Application Development Software, Cost Benefit Analysis, Applications, System Design, Strategic Planning, ADA, Prototype, and Software Engineering

A relational programming methodology is developed that enables the rapid design and prototyping of complex, evolutionary software applications, even by non-professionals with minimal supervision. Only relational data structures are used for system content and interface, and programming uses relational languages with an emphasis on relational algebra. The method is successfully applied to the development of two large projects: the Ada Relational Translator experimental compiler-interpreter for Ada and the Multi-Micro Line tool set for constructing multi-microprocessor applications. Cited advantages of the relational programming methodology include: avoiding early commitment to designing data structures and algorithms, extensive facilities for extracting data views when unanticipated functions must be added, and program structuring is decoupled from programming group structure.

Prototype, Cornell University, Research and Development, Models, Design, Manufacturing, Solids Modeling, Algorithm, and Cornell University -- Research

Electronic prototyping, or building a computer model of an object to verify its design, is replacing physical prototyping. Nonetheless, obstacles exist that impede the progress of electronic prototyping. One obstacle is a need for robust geometrical algorithms in computer-aided design systems. Existing algorithms can fail if their correctness depends on the logical consistency of the underlying structures. Research at Cornell University results in a paradigm expected to have wide applicability for producing provably correct programs for various engineering applications. The paradigm has been used to develop a provably correct intersection algorithm. The algorithm is several orders of magnitude more robust than existing codes. The Cornell project also dealt with electronic prototyping that permits designers to experiment with a number of configurations before committing to one design.

Prototype, Methods, Aerospace Engineering, Research and Development, Flight Control Systems, System Development, Strategic Planning, Software Engineering, United States. Dryden Research Center, Simulation, Flight Simulator, and United States. Dryden Flight Research Center -- Research

The Dryden Flight Research Facility of the NASA Ames Research Center (Edwards, CA) has developed and is enhancing a rapid prototyping facility (RPF) for developing and testing advanced avionics systems. Specifically, the system is designed to perform flight research on avionics employing conventional techniques and/or knowledge-based systems (KBSs) for control. RPF is an extension of the agency's remotely augmented vehicle (RAV) facility, which tests a variety of control algorithms on research aircraft without the need for expensive ongoing avionics modifications. RAV consists of a research aircraft, ground-based auxiliary computational facility and simulator for flight systems development and validation. The enhanced RPF will enable flight-test planning and the real-time simulation of flight performance. Details of the system are discussed.

Outlook, Software Validation, Software Quality, Software Engineering, Quality Control, Error Trapping, Research and Development, and Program Development Techniques

Better software verification and validation (V&V) tools will be needed as engineers strive to improve software productivity and quality. Changes in seven basic categories will drive the development of tomorrow's V&V technology. An aging software base will need reverse-engineering and updating to remain useful. Greater consumer awareness will cause developers to pay more attention to product-liability and consumer-protection factors. Complex applications will require the incorporation of V&V early in the product cycle. High-risk applications will require more extensive, redundant and complementary V&V activities. The reuse of documentation, designs, code, test plans and test results will reduce some V&V activities, but new techniques will be needed to ascertain the adequacy of the initial V&V effort. V&V activities will have to account for prototyping. Increased productivity among software developers will require the streamlining of V&V activities.

System Development, Icons, User Interface, Compiler/decompiler, Operating Environments, Research and Development, System Design, and Visualization

A visual language compiler, the SIL-ICON Compiler, is developed which enables the specification, interpretation, prototyping and generation of icon-oriented software systems. The compiler consists of: Icon System G, icon dictionary, operator dictionary, extended task action grammar, and icon interpreter. Icon System G enables the formal, syntactic specification of an icon system through a generalized language of icons. The icon interpreter is the heart of the compiler system, using the other component specifications to generate icon-oriented user interfaces. An extended example of how the icon interpreter works is described. Each of the other major SIL-ICON Compiler components are described. The compiler is written in C and runs on a Sun workstation.

Human Factors, Research and Development, Prototype, Product Development, Testing, Software Design, User Interface, Modeling, and AT&T Bell Laboratories Inc. -- Research

Human factors contributions to the design of user interfaces are likely to have the greatest impact at early design stages. Rapid prototyping therefore provides an important vehicle for incorporating quality and usability from the outset. Through realistic experience and interaction with the proposed user interface, users and user-interface designers can work together to detect and correct problems before a major development investment is made. The prototyping approach is especially powerful because it provides the opportunity for (1) early user feedback and performance data, (2) efficient, focused communication with users and developers, and (3) iterative design and test. In this paper we illustrate the prototyping and evaluating process with three examples of AT&T products and services. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Government Agency, Research and Development, Application-Specific Integrated Circuit, and Germany

Stuttgart Institute for Microelectronics (IMS, West Germany) is a highly successful non-profit foundation which assists small and medium-sized firms in the collaborative design, test, prototyping, and small-scale production of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs); supports cooperative research at regional to international levels, and furthers the education of scientific and technical personnel. IMS was founded by the State of Baden-Wuerttemberg and the Federal Republic of Germany and includes over 100 member firms in its Association of Industrial Affiliates. Example projects include a program to reduce time and cost for developing and testing ASICs and development of the CMOS GATE FOREST technology. IMS also participates in the automotive and traffic microelectronics project of the European Community's Eureka research effort.

Research and Development, C Programming Language, Debugging/testing software, Prototype, and American Telephone and Telegraph Co. -- Research

We have developed an interactive C programming environment (cens) with integrated facilities to create, edit, browse, execute, and debug C programs. At the heart of cens is a C source-code interpreter, cin, that implements correct and complete C semantics; enables rapid prototyping; performs extensive error checks; facilitates incremental update; manages multiple software views; and provides a programmable command language. In this article, we discuss how a medium-sized software project, the switched access remote test system (SARTS), has benefited from using cin for debugging, software manufacturing, and rapid prototyping. Using SARTS as a case study, we also describe how the interactive environment catches errors and allows corrections 'on the fly,' thereby shortening the debug cycle by a factor of 500 percent. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Embedded Systems, Research and Development, GUI, Texas A and M University, Lockheed Corp. -- Research, and Texas A&M University -- Research

The Laboratory for Software Research at Texas A&M and the Lockheed Software Technology Center in Austin are working to develop an environment to create user interfaces for embedded systems. The system is called the Graphical Specification System (GSS). Two parts combine to make up GSS: a wide-spectrum graphical specification language and a rapid prototyping capability. A complete specification for a user interface includes graphical display, how the user and computer interact, and how the user-interface software interacts with the application software. GSS has specification forms for user-interface tools and hooks in the graphical specification to permit lower level textual specifications. GSS also has an executive component that is an endless loop that recognizes user actions and informs the appropriate object(s) of these actions, that recognizes incoming application data and sends it through the appropriate back-end dataflow path, and performs any remaining executive functions.

Proprietary Systems, Research and Development, Integrated Approach, Simulation, Computer-Aided Engineering, Computer-Aided Design, Functional Capabilities, System Design, System Development, and Lucent Technologies Inc. Bell Laboratories -- Research

The interactive ISHMAEL system-development environment provides a single, consistent graphical interface for the the specification, prototyping, system simulation, development and documentation of the software and hardware components of a complex digital system and their interactions. ISHMAEL is specifically targeted at the life-cycle support of systems wherein the software and hardware are closely coupled. Three central advantages of ISHMAEL are its ability to simultaneously evolve hardware and software, iterative simulation for evaluating design tradeoffs and alternatives and the usefulness of the graphical interface. Details of the features and functioning of ISHMAEL are discussed. The initial application of ISHMAEL was to the development of Logopolis, a prototype high-performance telecommunications and information-processing hardware/software system.

Telemetry, Microprocessor, CMOS, Integrated Circuits, Buses, Biomedicine, Research and Development, and Medical Issues

A flexible, intelligent system for implantable biotelemetry instruments that meets the research needs of a variety of biomedical applications is presented. This system is based on a modular set of CMOS chips. A specialized serial bus connects the chips. The system meets the general requirements of high reliability, low power consumption, small size, and minimum weight. Using a common peripheral chip set means the method supports the fast, inexpensive prototyping of research instruments. A custom microprocessor design is desirable and appropriate for implantable systems.

Computer-Aided Design, Circuit Design, Prototype, New Technique, Technology, Integrated Systems, Real-Time System, California, University of (Berkeley), Research and Development, and University of California, Berkeley -- Research

The University of California, Berkeley, has developed the Hyper system that provides a completely integrated synthesis environment for real-time prototyping of datapath-intensive architectures, such as those used in high-performance, real-time systems in telecommunications, speech, video and image processing. Synthesis for real-time applications is defined as the hardware implementation with the least area, given an input computational graph, a number of real-time constraints and a hardware cell library. Hyper can generate a simulation model of the flow graph at any point, allowing the correctness of the executed operations to be verified and their effects on such performance parameters as the signal-to-noise ratio to be checked. The overall synthesis procedure in Hyper is implemented as a search process; new solutions are proposed by the system by executing such basic moves as adding or removing resources, changing the time allocation for different subgraphs in the algorithm, and applying an optimizing graph transformation.

Research and Development, Artificial Intelligence, Knowledge-Based System, Flight Control Systems, Aircraft, Military, United States. Air Force, United States. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, United States. Air Force -- Research, and United States. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency -- Research

The Pilot's Associate program, a joint effort of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the US Air Force, is a set of cooperating, knowledge-based subsystems. There are two assessors subsystems, two planning subsystems, and a pilot interface. Situation Assessment, which determines the state of the outside world, and System Status, which determines the state of the aircraft systems, are the two subsystems. Tactics Planner and Mission Planner are the two planning subsystem; they respond to immediate threats and how they will affect the mission plan. The Pilot-Vehicle Interface connects the human pilot to the system. Pilot's Associate is a success made possible by the software development environment provided by symbolic processors; rapid prototyping, which developed the program's functionality; artificial intelligence researchers; and an operational task force with flight crew and engineering backgrounds. The Pilot's Associate can be used in helicopters, multicrew aircraft, submarines, and unmanned vehicles.

Research and Development, Integrated Circuits, Multiprocessing, Video Systems, MIMD, Architecture, Dataflow Architecture, and Parallel Processing

Davewave is a fine-grained MIMD (multiple-instruction, multiple-data) array processor that is designed to be used for video applications. It has a systolic array topology and dataflow control built in. The goal was to design a parallel processor that is low enough in cost to be used in consumer applications. Systems of even higher performance can be built using the Datawave processor since it uses eight interprocess links configured as one read and one write bus at each of its four sides. The pipeline to the programmer/compiler is fully exposed. It has self-time, data-driven processing, so the need for a rigid global time schedule for every program is eliminated. Optimizing and parallelizing compilers have not yet been written. Rapid prototyping is possible using Datawave.