Abstracts of Magazine FUJITSU 1999-3 (VOL.50, NO.2)

Special Issue : Componentware

• Introduction to Component-based Software Development

This paper introduces the background, concept, and technology of component-based software development, in which applications are developed by combining software components.
Today’s rapid changes in business and information technologies require a fundamental change in software development. Component-based software development enables development knowledge to be accumulated and reused as modules, so new requirements can be handled flexibly and timely. For this purpose, we define the common interface for components and provide, as middleware, the common software architecture into which all components can be built in. The middleware integrates various components at abstraction levels ranging from basic components to application frameworks for a variety of application domains. In such domains, components are becoming standardized. We also provide a visual composition environment in which applications can be developed by wiring components on a GUI.
Component-based software development technology is becoming an important part of software engineering. In the future, it will enable more sophisticated, high-quality applications and services to be developed quickly and efficiently in a network environment.

• Fujitsu's Approach to Component-based System Development

This paper outlines Fujitsu's strategy and product lines for component-based system development.
Fujitsu announced its concept of component-based system development in November 1997. Since then, we have developed various component-related technologies and supplied related products. First, to improve productivity, we supplied graphical user interface （GUI） components; these components are mainly for client system development. Then, we supplied server application development environments such as Java, and advanced the development of frameworks and related development products for client-server systems. Currently, we are developing business objects based on the Enterprise JavaBeans （EJB） technology.
The above work proceeds according to Fujitsu’s Componentware system, which is based on the concept of component abstraction. This concept provides a basic structure for various component products ranging from GUIs to business objects.

• Components for Client Application Development

Re-use of software components, which software developers have requested for many years, has been now realized by the component technology derived from object-based technology. The current revolution in the business environment, which is due to the recent development of the information technology infrastructure, is stimulating demands for reductions in the development time and construction cost of enterprise information systems. At present, component technology is effective for improving the productivity of system development. There are several useful standardized component technologies currently available, for example, JavaBeans and ActiveX control.
This paper explains the purpose of components for client application development. Also, it describes the outline, characteristics, and future expansion of two of Fujitsu’s component products: ComponentAA/Client J and ComponentAA/Client X.

• Infrastructure Technology of Server Components

Network computing technologies such as the Internet are speeding up the rate at which information systems are being globalized. To construct such systems, we have examined distributed object technology, which can interconnect components in different systems or in different distributed environments.
In recent years, enterprises have been requested to develop systems cooperatively and efficiently, and in response, we have studied the technologies that ensure portability of components between different enterprises. Enterprise JavaBeans is a component architecture proposed by Sun Microsystems that is based on the distributed object-oriented techniques of Java programming. Many of the vendors who distribute component operational environments support Enterprise JavaBeans as a standard architecture for assuring the portability of server components.
This paper describes the characteristics of this standardized architecture and the merits of Fujitsu’s server component operational environment.

• Component-based Application Development Environment

In the system development field, recent object-oriented programming languages have accelerated the progress in program component creation and resource reuse techniques. However, it is clear that the benefits of productivity improvements and reduced development periods are restricted if we only reuse object-oriented classes as “smaller components.” In this situation, a new, component-based programming technology is needed to reuse “larger components.” Establishing the application architecture and framework by using this component technology makes it easier to develop business applications.
This paper introduces the features of an integrated development environment supplied by Fujitsu. These features range from analysis and design tools （for upper phases in system development） to development tools （for lower phases）.

• Prospect of Component-based System Development

The rapid evolution of the network computing environment is placing greater demands on the server components that make up the basic structure of business systems. This paper describes Fujitsu’s approach to business component application architecture, development methodologies, and standardization of business objects.
We have been making good progress in this area by drawing on our experience in information system development and data-oriented methodology study. Our architecture is characterized by the concept of the “Core Business Model,” which represents the application behavior associated with a databases structure and its constraints. The conventional business architecture, which has mainly been based on databases, should be rearranged using this concept to create new business object models common to various applications.
We are also developing a methodology, for the stages from business analysis to implemen-tation, on the above models.

• Real-time Preceding-vehicle Range-finding Using Offset Vertical Stereo Vision

We have developed a new real-time preceding-vehicle range-finding system based on vertical stereo vision. This system can prevent collisions with the preceding vehicle that typically occur due to traffic congestion or driver fatigue. In this system, stereo images are captured by two vertically aligned cameras that are easy to install on the vehicle and do not obscure the driver’s view.
We tested the measurement precision of the system by implementing it on the ISHTAR, general-purpose video image processor. We also tested the system stability by using actual road images in real time. The results of our tests showed that the system could be put to practical use.

• MPEG-2 Video Encoder LSI and Its Application Systems

We have developed a single-chip video encoder LSI that conforms to the moving picture coding experts group phase 2 （MPEG-2）, which is expected to be a key element in the creation of compact, high-quality digital video images. This LSI chip achieves high-quality video encoding with a minimized number of gates thanks to a new motion-estimation algorithm and an optimized chip hardware architecture. This chip uses 0.35 μm CMOS technology and contains about 2.5 million transistors; it is the smallest MPEG-2 encoder LSI chip reported to date.
This paper describes this new chip. It also describes a prototype encoder for transmission systems and a codec card for PCs that were developed as example applications of the LSI chip.

• New Video Encoding Algorithm for Low-bit-rate Applications

High-speed （from 30 to 64 kbps） digital data transmission services have become available through the personal handy phone systems （PHS） and high-speed modems communicating over existing analog telephone lines. These services can transmit motion pictures by using video coding algorithms.
H.263, which was standardized by the International Telecommunication Union-Telecommunication Standardization Sector （ITU-T）, is a very-powerful video coding algorithm with high compression capability for various types of video sequences. However, very dynamic scenes suffer from frame skipping or picture quality degradation because of the large amount of data they contain. To minimize these effects, we proposed an algorithm for adjusting the screen resolution to suit the picture conditions. This algorithm has been adopted in ITU-T H.263 Version 2.