The FIDE-2 Project

The ESPRIT Basic Research Project FIDE2 (Grant No.6309) involves six groups at universities and research institutions in Glasgow, Hamburg, Paris, Pisa and St. Andrews. The FIDE2 research advances the technology required for the integrated support for Persistent Application Systems which maintain long-lived and large-scale information systems. Typical PAS are computer-aided design systems, integrated manufacturing systems and managerial and administrative systems supporting organisations and government.

The FIDE research is motivated by the recognition that current information system development is realised by an inadequate mix of heterogeneous, stand-alone, poorly interacting and partially overlapping components. These include language processors, database management systems, operating systems, computer architectures, tools for software engineering and tools for program, data and user communication.

The FIDE1 project was concerned with the development of a better conceptual framework and the corresponding technology which was to jointly, significantly improve the process and results of building and operating Persistent Application Systems (PAS). The progress was based on an endeavour to replace the disparate and ad hoc technology that supports PAS at present with a Formally Integrated Data Environment (FIDE) that provided the required composite facilities in a consistent and easily used manner.

The work of FIDE1 was divided into three main themes: Database Programming Language Environments, Database System Environments and PAS workbenches. The emphasis in FIDE1 was on the first two of these. All sites influenced all aspects of the work as, inevitably in a project that focuses on an integration approach, virtually every issue influenced all the others. In order to test the concepts in a variety of contexts and combinations and to allow research to proceed concurrently, most issues were tackled by one or more subgroups as well as being the subject of separate experiments. These separate experiments had the advantage of allowing alternative approaches to open questions to be pursued and comparisons of the different results were then made.

Consequently, several stores and languages came into use that set up the context in which the detailed experiments were conducted.

The FIDE2 project will provide a significant advance in the technology required for the integrated support for Persistent Application Systems which maintain long-lived and large-scale information systems. Typical PAS are computer-aided design systems, integrated manufacturing systems and managerial and administrative systems supporting organisations and government.

FIDE2 contributions are in three principal areas:

FIDE2 comprises three aspects of research: The FIDE2 consortium applies all three aspects of research to each of the principal areas, elucidates the principles which enable integration and communicates the results via demonstrations and publications. More information can be obtained from the FIDE Home Page at Glasgow University.

The DBIS research contributions to the FIDE-2 project are described in more detail on the Tycoon WWW pages.

Florian Matthes (23-mar-95)