Integrating specification requirements for automated interpretation

The preparation of a valid specification is a vital but time consuming step in the design cycle. The purpose of the project described is to significantly reduce the time to produce specifications through the development of applicable design automation tools. Specifications are typically expressed in a variety of informal or ad hoc notations, including natural language. The specification requirements must be interpreted, integrated and checked after which an engineering model or a prototype can be synthesized. The author describes an approach to computer-aided support for these tasks by mapping requirements in the various notations onto a common knowledge representation notation in which the requirements may be integrated and checked for consistency and completeness