Leveraging legacy codes to distributed problem solving environments: A web service approach

This paper describes techniques used to leverage high performance legacy codes as CORBA components to a distributed problem solving environment. It first briefly introduces the software architecture adopted by the environment. Then it presents a CORBA oriented wrapper generator (COWG) which can be used to automatically wrap high performance legacy codes as CORBA components. Two legacy codes have been wrapped with COWG. One is an MPI-based molecular dynamic simulation (MDS) code, the other is a finite element based computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code for simulating incompressible Navier-Stokes flows. Performance comparisons between runs of the MDS CORBA component and the original MDS legacy code on a cluster of workstations and on a parallel computer are also presented. Wrapped as CORBA components, these legacy codes can be reused in a distributed computing environment. The first case shows that high performance can be maintained with the wrapped MDS component. The second case shows that a Web user can submit a task to the wrapped CFD component through a Web page without knowing the exact implementation of the component. In this way, a user’s desktop computing environment can be extended to a high performance computing environment using a cluster of workstations or a parallel computer

Markup meets middleware

We describe a distributed system architecture that supports the integration of different front-office trading systems with middle and back-office systems, each of which have been procured from different vendors. The architecture uses a judicious combination of object-oriented middleware and markup languages. In this combination an object request broker implements reliable trade data transport. Markup languages, particularly XML, are used to address data integration problems. We show that the strengths of middleware and markup languages are complementary and discuss the benefits of deploying middleware and markup languages in a synergistic manner

Design of Home Network Architecture using ACE/TAO Real Time Event Service

This paper proposes a home network design based on publisher/subscriber architecture which is developed using ACE/TAO Real-time Event Service (RTES) as the middleware platform. This design addresses a feature to support a real-time implementation for home network application such as home automation. Home network participants have been classified into several components based on consumer and supplier implementation in the ACE/TAO RTES in order to simplify the design. To optimize the network utilization, events are filtered based on their type and source for each publisher and subscriber. To deal with heterogeneous type of home appliances, event header information has been extended to wrap more information. Each of events can be configured with a specific scheduling and priority setting to meet its quality of service (QoS) according to the requirement. Network performance in handling an increasing number of consumer or supplier has been evaluated and show an acceptable result. Keywords: Home Network, ACE/TAO, RTES, QoS

Business objects: the next step in component technology?

Component technology seems to be a promising approach towards more efficient software development by enabling application construction through “plug and play”. However, the middleware supporting this approach is still complicated to use and distracts the attention of the component developer from the application domain to technical implementation issues. Business objects are intended to hide the complexities of middleware approaches and provide an easy to use environment for application developers. We conceptualize business object approaches by presenting a common model and survey some major players in the marketplace. We conclude by identifying implications of business objects on information systems engineering.

Corba version of Concordia parallel programming environment (CPPE)

In this major report, we present the design and implementation of the Corba Version of the Concordia Parallel Programming Environment (CPPE), a client-server-based simulator for parallel programming environment. The purpose of the client/server version is to provide services and a rich set of graphical user interfaces for remote clients. The challenge in the design of client/server version is to reuse the existing C/C++ code. To solve the problem, we use Corba's delegation technique to wrap the existing C/C++ application into a standard Corba object, and then we create an IDL interface for it. From the IDL interface specification, we create a Java standalone application wrapped in Corba objects that runs at client site and communicates with the server. We design and implement client site GUIs for the application in Java/Swing. This Corba Version of CPPE is very portable since the client site application can be installed and run in any platform. The server supports multiple users