A blackboard structure for handling engineering design data

With the wide range of computer-based design aids now available there is a need for these to be able to communicate so that design data can be passed between them. One way of doing this is by means of a blackboard, that is, a central data area to which a number of systems has access. A simple blackboard structure is described together with how the idea of constraint modeling can be used to provide some intelligence for decision making to be undertaken.