Patent ID: 6983236
Filing Date: 2006-01-03
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A method for choosing components or subsystems during an engineer's component discovery phase for a plurality of generic descriptions in a system design in compliance with one or more system constraints, wherein the generic descriptions stand in place of and represent the components or subsystems in the system design, the method comprising: choosing a first generic description and a second generic description from the plurality of generic descriptions; querying a database of objects for finding potential components or subsystems for the first generic description; receiving a first answer set from the database of objects, where the first answer set is comprised of at least one component or subsystem candidate for the first generic description; querying the database of objects for finding potential components or subsystems for the second generic description; receiving a second answer set from the database of objects, where the second answer set is comprised of at least one component or subsystem candidate for the second generic description; testing one or more combinations of the component or subsystem candidates from the first and second answer sets against one or more predefined system constraints; and determining at least one solution set, where each solution set is one of the combinations of the component or subsystem candidates which best complies with the one or more predefined system constraints.