On reverse engineering

A suggested approach to the process of reverse engineering is presented from a tutorial viewpoint. Reverse engineering is considered as the process of developing a set of specifications for a complex hardware system by an orderly examination of specimens of that system. These specifications are being prepared by persons other than the original designers, without the benefit of any of the original drawings or other documentation — save possibly operation and maintenance manuals. It is assumed that the specifications are being developed for the purpose of making a clone of the original hardware system, a circumstance which requires the most comprehensive form of specifications. In cloning hardware one must establish “tuning” and/or adjustment procedures as well as produce dimensioned drawings for parts procurement. Document formats are described for recording information and data in the reverse engineering process that are synergistic with the method recommended for use in guiding that process. The documentation suggested directs the reverse engineering process that uncovers the information which is recorded in those documents. A reverse engineering method is described that is based on the premise that a complex hardware system can be characterized as a hierarchical structure. The key feature of this method is that when it is applied to a specific level in the hardware structural hierarchy, it is used to uncover the internal particulars of a specific item of that level in terms of the elements [that are subsets of that item] located in the immediately subordinate level and how those elements are interconnected. One is able [given the availability of adequate supporting information] to start at any level in the system structural hierarchy and progress level by level to individual piece parts by repeated application of the cited method.