Objective: to develop a specification for an object-oriented main-memory shared dtabase for a homogeneous shared-memory multi- processor which is highly integrated with the Ada language, and programmed as much as possible in portable Ada. This in-memory database shuld provide for the extremely efficient operations required of a real-time, embedded, intelligent robotics multi- processor-e.g., the DARPA Pilot's Associate. The highest efficiency is to be obtained by keeping all data in RAM memory, using standard Ada datatype formats, using shared-memory rather than message-passing techniques whenever possible, and relying on hardware cache-coherency techniques rather than software techniques whenever possible. The "blackboard architecture" used to implement intelligent behavior will be implemented on top of this object-oriented main-memory shared database. This Ada database can also serve as a highly efficient "object cache" for a more persistent, non-real-time commercial object-oriented database.
Benefits: Our efficient, portable, generic, object-oriented Ada database can provide a core for many different intelligent robotics defense systems, as will as most commercial real-time robotic controls.
