abbott@aero.ARPA (Russell J. Abbott) (02/18/88)
We are currently investigating the possibility of developing an environment for the interchange of information among system engineering tools on a network of disparate computers. The Aerospace Corp. is a federally funded research and development center whose primary work is to support the Space Division of the US Air Force. Space Division's primary responsibility is to acquire satellite systems. The Aerospace Corp. does not produce satellite systems; the design and manufacture of satellites, boosters, ground stations, etc. is done by (other) contractors to Space Division. Our job is primarily twofold: (1) We do system engineering to help define requirements for systems to be acquired. (2) Once contracts have been let, we monitor their progress. In doing our work we currently make extensive use of scientific and engineering tools, e.g., for simulation, analysis, etc. We also use document preparation tools and project management tools. There is no standard for the representation of information among the tools. Integration of the results of tool use is generally done manually. Our tools run on a variety of computers ranging from a Cray and large IBM and CDC mainframes to PC's. Although communication channels are available among our machines, our tools are generally used independently and in isolation. The current investigation is to determine the feasibility and potential value of providing an umbrella environment to allow tools to share information. I would appreciate any information on related or otherwise relevant work. Thanks. -- Russ Abbott