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CORBA/e  Resource Page

OMG’s CORBA/e Middleware Specification for Distributed Real-time & Embedded Systems
First two adopted profiles, CORBA/e Compact Profile and
CORBA/e Micro Profile, target resource-constrained embedded systems

The Object Management Group™ (OMG™) has adopted CORBA/e (CORBA/e for embedded) as a standard. Drawing on more than 16 years of experience with the CORBA middleware, OMG has designed CORBA/e to have the best of both worlds: dramatically minimizing the footprint and overhead of typical middleware, while retaining the core elements of interoperability and real-time computing that support optimized distributed systems. Also announced today are the first two CORBA/e profiles, CORBA/e Compact and CORBA/e Micro Profile. Tailored separately for minimal and single-chip environments, the Compact Profile and the Micro Profile bring industry-standard interoperability and real-time predictable behavior to Distributed Real-time and Embedded (DRE) computing.

CORBA is a mature, standard middleware that combines the interoperability, deterministic execution, and absolute dependability required by distributed embedded systems. CORBA standardizes the interoperability, and Real-time CORBA defines the deterministic execution platform that these systems need, but the full versions of these specifications were designed for a resource-rich, dynamic environment. To adapt these specifications to the resource-constrained, static embedded environment, OMG developed CORBA/e. CORBA/e sheds the dynamic and high-resource aspects of CORBA (such as the Dynamic Invocation Interface, Interface Repository, and Components) while retaining full interoperability and (for the Compact Profile) the real-time infrastructure including static scheduling.

CORBA/e Compact Profile
CORBA/e Compact Profile merges key features of standard CORBA suitable for resource-constrained static systems (no DII, DSI, Interface Repository, or Component support) and Real-time CORBA into a powerful yet compact middleware package that interoperates with other CORBA clients and servers of every scale, executes with the deterministic characteristics required of a true real-time platform, and leverages the knowledge and skills of your existing development team through its mature industry-standard architecture.

CORBA/e Micro Profile
The CORBA/e Micro Profile shrinks the footprint even more, small enough to fit low-powered microprocessors or digital signal processors (DSPs). This profile further eliminates the Valuetype, the Any type, most of the POA options preserved in the Compact Profile, and all of the Real-time functions excepting only the Mutex interface. In exchange for these limitations, the profile defines a CORBA executable that vendors have fit into only tens of kilobytes – small enough to fit onto a high-end DSP or microprocessor on a hand-held device.

CORBA/e Text Resources

• CORBA Explained Simply, Ciaran McHale
  A concise book for people who want a technical understanding of the concepts and terminology of CORBA without learning the low-level details.  Check it out at http://www.ciaranmchale.com/corba-explained-simply/

For technical details, please view the CORBA/e flyer or view the entire specification on this resource page.

This page was updated on: 10/07/2009