Engineering topics

Jones, William Henry

Publications and source records attributed to Jones, William Henry.

10 records

NASA NTRS2008

Project Integration Architecture

The Project Integration Architecture (PIA) is a distributed, object-oriented, conceptual, software framework for the generation, organization, publication, integration, and consumption of all information involved in any complex technological process in a manner that is intelligible to both computers and humans. In the development of PIA, it was recognized that in order to provide a single computational environment in which all information associated with any given complex technological process could be viewed, reviewed, manipulated, and shared, it is necessary to formulate all the elements of such a process on the most fundamental level. In this formulation, any such element is regarded as being composed of any or all of three parts: input information, some transformation of that input information, and some useful output information. Another fundamental principle of PIA is the assumption that no consumer of information, whether human or computer, can be assumed to have any useful foreknowledge of an element presented to it. Consequently, a PIA-compliant computing system is required to be ready to respond to any questions, posed by the consumer, concerning the nature of the proffered element. In colloquial terms, a PIA-compliant system must be prepared to provide all the information needed to place the element in context. To satisfy this requirement, PIA extends the previously established object-oriented- programming concept of self-revelation and applies it on a grand scale. To enable pervasive use of self-revelation, PIA exploits another previously established object-oriented-programming concept - that of semantic infusion through class derivation. By means of self-revelation and semantic infusion through class derivation, a consumer of information can inquire about the contents of all information entities (e.g., databases and software) and can interact appropriately with those entities. Other key features of PIA are listed.

Jones, William Henry↗

NASA NTRS2005

Project Integration Architecture: Application Architecture

Jones, William Henry↗

NASA NTRS2005

Project Integration Architecture: Distributed Lock Management, Deadlock Detection, and Set Iteration

The migration of the Project Integration Architecture (PIA) to the distributed object environment of the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) brings with it the nearly unavoidable requirements of multiaccessor, asynchronous operations. In order to maintain the integrity of data structures in such an environment, it is necessary to provide a locking mechanism capable of protecting the complex operations typical of the PIA architecture. This paper reports on the implementation of a locking mechanism to treat that need. Additionally, the ancillary features necessary to make the distributed lock mechanism work are discussed.

Jones, William Henry↗

NASA NTRS2005

Project Integration Architecture: Inter-Application Propagation of Information

A principal goal of the Project Integration Architecture (PIA) is to facilitate the meaningful inter-application transfer of application-value-added information. Such exchanging applications may be largely unrelated to each other except through their applicability to an overall project; however, the PIA effort recognizes as fundamental the need to make such applications cooperate despite wide disparaties either in the fidelity of the analyses carried out, or even the disciplines of the analysis. This paper discusses the approach and techniques applied and anticipated by the PIA project in treating this need.

Jones, William Henry↗

NASA NTRS2005

Project Integration Architecture: Formulation of Semantic Parameters

One of several key elements of the Project Integration Architecture (PIA) is the intention to formulate parameter objects which convey meaningful semantic information. In so doing, it is expected that a level of automation can be achieved in the consumption of information content by PIA-consuming clients outside the programmatic boundary of a presenting PIA-wrapped application. This paper discusses the steps that have been recently taken in formulating such semantically-meaningful parameters.

Jones, William Henry↗

NASA NTRS2005

Project Integration Architecture: Formulation of Dimensionality in Semantic Parameters Outline

One of several key elements of the Project Integration Architecture (PIA) is the formulation of parameter objects which convey meaningful semantic information. The infusion of measurement dimensionality into such objects is an important part of that effort since it promises to automate the conversion of units between cooperating applications and, thereby, eliminate the mistakes that have occasionally beset other systems of information transport. This paper discusses the conceptualization of dimensionality developed as a result of that effort.

Jones, William Henry↗

NASA NTRS2005

Project Integration Architecture: A Practical Demonstration of Information Propagation

One of the goals of the Project Integration Architecture (PIA) effort is to provide the ability to propagate information between disparate applications. With this ability, applications may then be formed into an application graph constituting a super-application. Such a super-application would then provide all of the analysis appropriate to a given technical system. This paper reports on a small demonstration of this concept in which a Computer Aided Design (CAD) application was connected to an inlet analysis code and geometry information automatically propagated from one to the other. The majority of the work reported involved not the technology of information propagation, but rather the conversion of propagated information into a form usable by the receiving application.

Jones, William Henry↗

NASA NTRS2005

Project Integration Architecture as a Foundation for Autonomous Solution Systems: The Postulation of a Meaningful "SolveYourself" Method

The Project Integration Architecture (PIA) uses object-oriented technology to implement self-revelation and semantic infusion through class derivation. That is, the kind of an object can be discovered through program inquiry and the well-known, well-defined meaning of that object can be utilized as a result of that discovery. This technology has already been demonstrated by the PIA effort in its parameter object classes. It is proposed that, by building on this technology, an autonomous, automatic, goal-seeking, solution system may be devised.

Jones, William Henry↗

NASA NTRS2005

Project Integration Architecture: Implementation of the CORBA-Served Application Infrastructure

The Project Integration Architecture (PIA) has been demonstrated in a single-machine C++ implementation prototype. The architecture is in the process of being migrated to a Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) implementation. The migration of the Foundation Layer interfaces is fundamentally complete. The implementation of the Application Layer infrastructure for that migration is reported. The Application Layer provides for distributed user identification and authentication, per-user/per-instance access controls, server administration, the formation of mutually-trusting application servers, a server locality protocol, and an ability to search for interface implementations through such trusted server networks.

Jones, William Henry↗

NASA NTRS2001

Project Integration Architecture: Architectural Overview

The Project Integration Architecture (PIA) implements a flexible, object-oriented, wrapping architecture which encapsulates all of the information associated with engineering applications. The architecture allows the progress of a project to be tracked and documented in its entirety. By being a single, self-revealing architecture, the ability to develop single tools, for example a single graphical user interface, to span all applications is enabled. Additionally, by bringing all of the information sources and sinks of a project into a single architectural space, the ability to transport information between those applications becomes possible, Object-encapsulation further allows information to become in a sense self-aware, knowing things such as its own dimensionality and providing functionality appropriate to its kind.

Jones, William Henry↗