ENHANCED STANDARDIZATION OF MATE SOFTWARE

THE MATE PROGRAM WAS DESIGNED TO PROVIDE HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE STANDARDS TO THE ATE INDUSTRY. IN PARTICULAR, MATE SOFTWARE WAS INTENDED TO USE A STANDARDIZED TEST LANGUAGE - ATLAS - ON A STANDARDIZED TEST EXECUTIVE, THE MTE, ALL RUNNING ON A STANDARD OPERATING SYSTEM, THE MOS. THE MOS WAS DESIGNED TO BE EASILY REHOSTABLE AND HAS, IN FACT, BEEN REHOSTED TO SEVERAL HARDWARE CONFIGURATIONS. HOWEVER, WHILE THE TEST LANGUAGE CHOSEN FOR MATE WAS PICKED ON THE BASIS OF ITS WIDE USAGE IN THE ATE INDUSTRY, THE MOS WAS WRITTEN LOSSELY BASED ON A NUMBER OF EARLY VERSIONS OF UNIX WITH NO PARTICULAR EFFORT TO MATCH A PRECISE INDUSTRY STANDARD. INDEED IT COULD NOT, AS NO SUCH STANDARD EXISTED. RECENTLY THE USAF IN ITS RFP FOR AFCAC PROJECT 251 ESTABLISHED AT&T'S SVID AS THE STANDARD FOR UNIX WITH THE EXCEPTION THAT IT WOULD EVENTUALLY BE SUBSUMED UNDER THE IEEE POSIX STANDARD. AT THIS POINT IT WOULD BE WORTHWHILE TO ANALYZE THE MCSS IN LIGHT OF SVID AND POSIX AND DETERMINE WHAT STEPS SHOULD BE TAKEN TO MAKE THE MCSS CONFORM TO THE NEW USAF STANDARD.