In this development effort, TYX has separated the Run Time System GUI and engine components. The reasoning behind this is twofold: to provide a distributed architecture and to allow our customers to "bolt-on" custom man machine interfaces. Our design presents a DCOM interface to the external world thus allowing other software components to plug into our RTS. Some of the goals of this design were to specify a set of services that:

• Facilitate the encapsulation of the RTS to be an open server component capable of runtime collaboration with other control, monitoring and input / output components
• Permit multiple clients to monitor RTS performance and obtain state information.
• Provide fully configurable notification mechanisms for a variety of events
• Minimize the real-time impact of GUI and notification overhead
• Support for RTS / GUI distribution on different machines
• Employ method parameter types compatible with Visual Basic, Java and C++ bindings.

Our first delivery of this technology was for the Boeing PIP. In this scenario, the RTS server engine resides on the PIP and the client is controlled by an IETM located on the Sikorsky Portable Maintenance Aid. We demonstrated this concept further in Japan where the customer has built GUI clients providing native Kanji support.

Some of the features provided by the DCOM RTS are listed below:

• Multi Resource and Multilingual support --- In addition to the isolation of all strings and visible GUI elements, all GUI components have been isolated, thus allowing resources to be edited either in place or as an external DLL.
• Distributed Multiple CEM Instrument Drivers --- The RTS supports multiple CEM DLLs. This eliminates the restriction of having to combine all drivers into one DLL; DLLs can be remotely accessed with just changes to the Bus Configuration file. This facilitates grouping based on criteria such as RF instrumentation rack, EO, etc., thereby reducing the cost of integration, maintenance, and configuration control.
• Fully redesigned Data Logger product --- This is now shipped as a set of COM components which can be easily replaced by either the customer or TYX. The EFA 2000 Project at DASA LFK is currently using this tool. The components are as follows:
• XML Data Logger Recorder – XML format for flexibility and portability. Output can be manipulated easily or customized.
• IE5 / XSL presentation – Data Logger output viewer developed using the support provided by the Internet Explorer 5. Customers have full access to the presentation format and processing of data.
• COM Data Logger GUI – Flexible component provides support for user defined fields. A variety of events can be used to display and collect information.
• Main Data Logger Component – interacts with the RTS and links the other components together. Highly configurable and collects a wealth of information as testing proceeds.
• ActiveX controls which are automation compatible and support a variety of needs including Visual C++, Visual Basic, Visual J++, VBA, HTML Pages, VB Script, Java Script, Access, and Excel. Such wide coverage provides for flexibility and an open and simple interface. Several flavors of ActiveX controls are available as follows:
• RTS Monitor – monitors the RTS and can provide support for custom GUIs. It can only monitor server behavior.
• RTS Control – provides support to control the RTS. Its visual appearance is a toolbar with controls. It can fully control the RTS and provides access to the RTS Server.
• RTS Combo – combines the functionality of monitoring and control.
• RTS Sync – provides synchronization services, wait for TPS to load, unload or execute. Support for program control of TPS.
• Enhanced CEM Wizard – Redesigned GUI with independent selection of modifiers and an intuitive presentation. LEX independence and selection of C or C++ Output files.

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