SAFE-IS: Software Abstractions for Event-Intensive Systems
The Software Abstractions for Event-intensive Systems (SAFE-IS) FWO project is situated in the domain of the Internet of Things, where computing power is introduced into everyday object that will enable them to communicate with one another and with more tradi- tional computers. This project focuses on such event- intensive software systems where the crux of the problem lies in the volatility and massiveness of the information produced. SAFE-IS uses an integrated approach at tackling these problems, consisting both of an innovative open programming language and an innovative middleware layer.
In distributed systems research, programming language and middleware research are often considered as competing approaches to tackle similar problems. SAFE-IS envisions that one single approach will not cover all aspects of the problem described above. On the one hand, we believe that the scale and volatility of the information produced results in a computational model that is irreconcilable with the traditional thread-based models in order to mould a complete solution in middleware libraries. On the other hand, we believe that the technical properties of the underlying machinery are too diverse in order to hide all aspects in a pre-designed programming language. SAFE-IS will therefore use an integrated approach that consists of an innovative open programming language in which language embedding is used to access an underlying middleware layer. Both will be supported by the appropriate implementation technology.