Dirk Solte
FAW
Helmholtzstrasse 16
7900 Ulm, Germany
SOLTE@DULFAW1A

Abstract
The MIDA project at the FAW has developed the AMBAS system, which is 
building an intelligent operating system for heterogeneous distributed 
computers. The AMBAS system will not only manage computer resources, 
with a client/server architecture but, furthermore, AMBAS support users 
in solving problems. AMBAS will accept problem descriptions, given 
in a strictly formalized way, and select methods for solving them. 
Further, this process will be adaptive, based on feedback from the 
users in previous problem solving sessions. The key concept used to 
achieve these functionalities is that of "operational programming". 
This is a combination of a software engineering methodology and 
object-oriented programming that provides a formalism for defining 
problem solving methods and a criterion for matching methods to 
problems. In particular, this is accomplished by requiring that all 
methods be purely functional, with no side-effects, and that input 
and output structures be defined as physically separated structures. 
In addition, we define five elementary operators that have to be 
associated with data and methods.This paper gives an overview of the 
architectural components of the AMBAS system; those already available, 
and those under development. We describe how AMBAS may be used for 
applications (including CIM), known problems with the prototype, and 
future directions.