Product data for life cycle support

The author presents the technical details of the US Air Force Manufacturing Technology PDES Application Protocols for Electronics (PAP-E) program. The PAP-E program relates to the ATLAS/Ada based environment for test (ABET) architecture under development. This program is developing the Product Data Exchange using STEP (standard for the exchange of product model data) (PDES/STEP) application protocols, to be presented to the International Electrotechnical Committee (IEC) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) STEP standards community. The application protocols to be developed by this program are for the representation of printed circuit assembly and line replaceable module test, diagnostics, and re-engineering life cycle support product data. In addition to the PDES/STEP standards focus, product data requirements in the form of information models are being provided to existing electronics product data standards bodies such as the IEEE, EIA, and CAD Framework Initiative, Inc. (CFI).<>