in High Energy Ph s Experiments

We present the first conceptual results in the design of,,an object-oriented framework that tackles recurrent problems encountered when developing acquisition and triggering systems for high-energy physics experiments. These problems include softwarekardware frontier definition and the impact of both intrinsic and performance-related distribution on software development. Based on the UML (Unified Modeling Language) extension mechanisms and a real-time CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) implementation, the framework aims at providing 1) high-level concepts for flexible hardware-software separation, and 2) simple mechanisms for transparently deriving distribution automatically from system-level definitions. The framework will therefore implement design patterns that result from our experience of HEP (High Energy Physics) TDAQ (Trigger and Data Acquisition) system development.