A dynamic integration architecture for high availability real-time systems

Describes a software architecture which supports incremental system and software integration, hardware and software maintenance, and system evolution and reconfiguration without imposing a significant impact on system performance or availability. The approach utilizes a compact command language for controlling the dynamic integration of new or replacement software and hardware components into a distributed real-time system while that system is operating normally. The approach works with current languages, architectures and applications and does not depend on the availability of redundant processing components. The dynamic integration command language is described using a typical usage scenario, and the results of a prototype implementation effort are discussed, in which real-time dynamic integration commands have been shown to have performance times in the 20-30-/spl mu/s range.<>