Context Sensitivity and Ambiguity in Component-based Systems Design

Stephen J. Bespalko, Principal Investigator
Sandia National Laboratories
PO Box 5800
Albuquerque, NM 87185-0977 USA
Tel: (505) 845-8847
Fax: (505) 844-2057
Email: sjbespa@sandia.gov
- Alexander Sindt, Technical Intern
Sandia National Laboratories
PO Box 5800
Albuquerque, NM 87185-0977 USA
Email: scapino@mit.edu

Abstract:

Designers of component-based, real-time systems need to guarantee the correctness of software and its output. Complexity of a system, and thus the propensity for error, is best characterized by the number of states a component can encounter. In many cases, large numbers of states arise where the processing is highly dependent on context. In these cases, states are often missed, leading to errors. The following are proposals for compactly specifying system states which allow the factoring of complex components into a control module and a semantic processing module. Further, the need for methods that allow for the explicit representation of ambiguity and uncertainty in the design of components is discussed. Presented herein are examples of real-world problems which are highly context-sensitive or are inherently ambiguous.

Keywords: Context Sensitivity, Ambiguity, Component-based Software, Real-time Systems, Formal methods

Workshop Goals: Share research; publicize the importance of ambiguity and context sensitivity in the design of real-time systems; find new solutions to real-world problems.

Acknowledgement and Disclaimer: This work was supported by the United States Department of Energy and was performed at Sandia National Laboratories under Contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.

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