A large scale distributed object architecture-CORBA and COM for real time systems

Discusses a complex class of industrial applications involving co-operating multiple applications, each of which itself involves multiple processes. These applications normally work on multiple platforms with multiple languages. The architecture chosen is a distributed object architecture using CORBA in conjunction with a dynamic plug-and-play GUI architecture that uses plug-ins consisting of C++ objects with COM wrappers. The system addresses the issues of working in real time with CORBA by allocating fixed priorities. The presence of a DCOM-based legacy system required the development of a DCOM/CORBA bridge. Furthermore, it used a time-triggered architecture at the lowest level for collecting information from the sensors, and an event-triggered architecture at the global network manager level.