INTERBASE - AN EXECUTION ENVIRONMENT FOR HETEROGENEOUS SOFTWARE SYSTEMS

Because preexisting software systems have been developed to satisfy di verse computational and information processing requirements, their sub sequent integration to support global applications - without violating the local autonomy of component systems - is a formidable task. The s olution proposed by Purdue University's InterBase project provides a u niform system-level interface. This tool-based interface uses the Inte r-Base Parallel Language, which supports application program integrati on and distributed transaction processing. The InterBase system locate s and starts remote services, transfers and transforms data among diff erent services. manages failures, and controls parallelism between mul tiple global applications running concurrently. InterBase also uses re move system interfaces, which are superimposed on each software resour ce, to deal with the problem of heterogeneity. The RSIs transform comm ands and data between global applications and various software resourc es, forming a homogeneous interface to heterogeneous software resource s. InterBase's utility has been demonstrated through a trial implement ation at Bell Northern Research. BNR anticipated - and is realizing - benefits in both cost and convenience.