Language-based rapid prototyping methods for legacy system re-engineering and re-use

Electronic technologies are evolving more rapidly than any other aspect of commercial and military systems. This pace can lead to waste and inefficiency when perfectly serviceable systems must be scrapped because spare assemblies and replacement parts are no longer available. While rapid prototyping methods offer the means to quickly go from concept to prototype, they lack the ability to easily include good concepts from old designs. This paper describes preliminary work to develop methods that allow legacy design information to be incorporated into a top-down language-based rapid prototyping methodology. This will allow rapid re-engineering and replacement of obsolete legacy system components, as well as offering a new design re-use path for system upgrades