Integrated Data Management Tools for Real Time Applications

A great deal of progress has been made in recent years in the richness and ease of use of data management and visualization tools available for commercial data processing or even for personal computing applications. Comparable tools have lagged in real time applications such as vehicle simulation, while the complexity of the equipment being modeled continues to increase.

This paper describes research and development being conducted on real time data management tools. This effort involves the integration of standard generic tools such as database management systems, standard tools specialized for simulation applications, and new components under research. The intent of the research is to provide tools to visualize and record real time data while the application is being run. The research also provides a data-centered environment that would facilitate the application development process. For the run time use of these tools the goal is to minimize the intrusiveness of the tools on the applications so that application determinism can be maintained. While the research involves the integration of specific components, the environment is intended to be open for users to integrate other tools. All components run on UNIX workstations or real time systems and conform with X Windows and OSF(Open Software Foundation)/Motif standards. The current research concentrates on C applications, but extensions to FORTRAN, C++ and Ada are planned. UNIX is a registered trademark of X/Open Company, Ltd. The X Window System is a trademark of MIT.