DESIGN AND ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES FOR CONCURRENT BLACKBOARD SYSTEMS

This paper gives a Formal Model for Blackboard Systems that provides a consistent method for describing a blackboard system, The Formal Mode l describes the basic components of a blackboard system and how the co mponents interact, A set of blackboard system design tools has been de veloped and validated for implementing systems that are expressed usin g the Formal Model, The tools are used to test and refine a proposed b lackboard system design before the design is implemented, The set of b lackboard system design tools consists of a Knowledge Source Organizer , a Knowledge Source Input/Output Connectivity Analyzer, a validated B lackboard System Simulation Model, and a Blackboard system Code Genera tor. The lack of design and analysis tools has hindered the full reali zation of the concurrency inherent in the blackboard problem-solving m odel, Use of a centralized control mechanism and knowledge source cont ention in accessing the blackboard have restricted the concurrency pos sible in previous systems, Using the design, simulation, and analysis tools, a fast, efficient, and powerful concurrent object-oriented blac kboard system has been developed.