New Waves in Systems Architecture

Abstract

Sometimes one has the feeling that software engineering is like building a sandcastle on the beach. Few rules exist, the components are small like sand grains, tools are minimal, made of cheap material and are often just the bare hands. Many self-declared “expert” junior and senior sandcastle engineers work at it without a plan or management. Only limited complexity can be achieved and the user needs quite a bit of imagination to see the full picture. If you do not perform continuous maintenance, everything will fall apart soon. The smallest tremor in the environment endangers the whole building. At the same time we see new waves of methods, technology, and requirements coming rolling towards us, often destroying the castle! So we better watch for new waves coming along – and as a watch tower for new waves in systems architecture EUROMICRO has kept its historical place since 1974. At the first conference in Nice we discussed microprogramming, microprocessors, advanced microsystem architectures, cross-compilation, and their synergy. EUROMICRO has kept it place until today with this year’s 29 conference. It has adjusted the changing waves and floods (!) of innovation. We do not serve a small circle of specialists, but a broad audience of general practitioners and academics This year again we offer three strong tracks of high-technology subjects and the associated messages: Component Based Software Development: Do not build but assemble! It promises a large step forward in productivity, quality and time-to-market. Software Process and Product Improvement: Improve the software development process in order to produce higher quality systems! This helps to automate and improve other (business) processes down the line. Multimedia and Telecommunication: Utilize the advances of technology to provide richer communication channels! We improve business and social contacts over larger distances.