High-speed scientific cameras have been demanding more from their control systems as the number of pixels, and number of frame increases and therefore the required total bandwidth. One way to cope with this demand is to perform realtime image processing. The challenge on that is the fact that each experiment requires a different processing algorithms and one needs to reconfigure it frequently. An example of this system is the LBNL high-speed cameras based on FPGAs used on X-rays and electron microscopy experiments. These camera systems can benefit from modern design methodologies that explore higher abstraction level modeling, which includes both functional and non-functional requirements specification and that take advantage of techniques such as object-oriented and aspect-oriented methodologies. This paper introduces HIPAO, a Hardware Image Processing system based on model driven engineering and Aspect-Oriented modeling. Some examples are shown for each step of the methodology that goes from requirements modeling to automatic code generation.

Object-oriented database systems (OODBS), which aim at meeting the data modeling, performance, cooperative design, and version management requirements of next-generation applications, such as CAD, CAM, CASE, hypermedia, and expert systems, are discussed. Key features of OODBS are presented, a taxonomy of approaches is provided, and architectural and implementation issues, design alternatives, and tradeoffs are examined. A variety of OODB systems, both research prototypes and commercial systems, are summarized. Industry efforts to accelerate a consensus that can lead to standards in the OODB are discussed.>

An object exchange service (OXS) and an external object representation (EXTOR) are described in the context of a distributed object-oriented database. EXTOR is the common representation that facilitates the sharing of information among a network of machines. The aim is to represent complex structured information in an efficient external form and to provide maximal sharing of information among computing sessions. OXS is a service which, together with the concepts of object boundary, global objects, and object closure, provides the exchange of information using EXTOR. A brief description is provided of the distributed object-oriented system that utilizes this service, the performance results for OXS, and the future directions for the design of generalized object exchange services in heterogeneous computing environments.>