Interfaces
An interface is where things come together.
One goal that systems engineers strive to achieve is to keep systems and components from becoming too entangled.
To do this they restrict how systems and components can be connected.
The way a system or component can be coupled to something else is called an interface (literally face to face).
Couplings can be as diverse as things fastened together or gasses meeting in a chamber.
I/O is what usually flows through the interface. These are often electrical signals, but could be thermal conduction or pressure on a transducer.
Sometimes however it is just a surface where a mechanical connection can be made.
An example of physical connection is bolting an engine to a mower deck at their interface.
A purist will say that even this is a communication of thermal energy or torque or some such thing.
Information systems have complex mechanical and sequential interfaces.
It is up to the systems engineer to establish exactly what interfaces will exist and the structure or protocol of information communicated between them.
Back | Next |
Input and Output | Port
Copyright Spidel Tech Solutions, Inc. 2004 All Rights Reserved. Updated:
7/10/2009 11:56:32 PM
Idx: 711 Site Design STS
