The software architecture of a distributed problem-solving environment

This paper describes the functionality and software architecture of a gener ic problem-solving environment (PSE) for collaborative computational scienc e and engineering, A PSE is designed to provide transparent access to heter ogeneous distributed computing resources, and is intended to enhance resear ch productivity by making it easier to construct, run, and analyze the resu lts of computer simulations, Although implementation details are not discus sed in depth, the role of software technologies such as CORBA, Java, and XM L is outlined, An XML-based component model is presented, The main features of a Visual Component Composition Environment for software development, an d an Intelligent Resource Management System for scheduling components, are described. Some prototype implementations of PSE applications are also pres ented. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.