Component Based Problem Solving Environment

The aim of the project described in this paper was to use modern software component technologies such as CORBA, Java and XML for the development of key modules which can be used for the rapid prototyping of application specific Problem Solving Environments (PSE). The software components developed in this project were a user interface, scheduler, monitor, various components for handling interrupts, synchronisation, task execution and software for photonic crystal simulations. The key requirements for the PSE were to provide support for distributed computation in a heterogeneous environment, a user friendly interface for graphical programming, intelligent resource management, object oriented design, a high level of portability and software maintainability, reuse of legacy code and application of middleware technologies in software design.