1.1 What Is MICO?

The acronym MICO expands to MICO Is CORBA. For a more elaborate answer, we first need to explain the term CORBA. CORBA stands for Common Object Request Broker Architecture, and it describes the architecture of a middleware platform that supports the implementation of applications in distributed and heterogeneous environments (see [6]). The CORBA standard is issued by the Object Management Group (OMG), an international organization with over 800 information software vendors, software developers, and users. The goal of the OMG is the establishment of industry guidelines and object management specifications to provide a common framework for application development.

One important aspect of CORBA is that it is a specification and not an implementation. CORBA provides a framework allowing applications to interoperate in a distributed and heterogeneous environment, but it does not prescribe any specific technology for how to implement the CORBA standard. The standard is freely available via the World Wide Web at www.omg.org. Currently, there exist many implementations of CORBA focusing on different market segments.

CORBA has gained much attention and is being used for many different projects, which is reflected by the steady growth of literature on the subject. All these books have a major drawback, however: they assume that you have access to a CORBA implementation to try it out yourself. There are many commercially available CORBA products, such as Orbix from Iona or VisiBrokerfrom Inprise. But you have to pay a lot of money if you wish to...