E-design based on the reuse paradigm

This paper gives an overview on a virtual electronic component or IP (Intellectual Property) exchange infrastructure whose main components are a XML "well structured IP e-catalog Builder/spl trade/" and a " XML IP profiler/spl trade/." While the first module is an e-publishing and an exchange management module, the second has as a role the extraction from the design directories the IP files and to trigger their transfer to the user site possibly via an IP distribution server under the catalog control. Direct design file extraction from commercial configuration systems such as CVS and Clearcase is supported. Also it is pointed out that the architecture supports, if required, a network of IP distribution servers to prevent a performance bottleneck when exchanging IPs; both modules have been implemented respectively in Java Servlet and as a Java client/server application.