Known as LiveDoc, the solution addresses the "data island" problems that crop up as manufacturers and vendors collaborate on designs that require ongoing updates from engineers using various software tools. It involves using a Web site where an engineering project and its information reside, thus allowing engineers to access updates and changes in real-time. Scott Washburn, director of marketing for Aviatis, called it the first use of a Web-based solution to solve such engineering dilemmas.

LiveDoc, which targets designers of embedded automotive electronics, will debut at Convergence 2000 in Detroit.

The key to the system is its use of server software that enables engineers to make changes and revisions while working inside their company's "firewall." The server software employs a piece of Java code that runs inside the user's browser but does not talk to the Web site, which is run by Aviatis (Campbell, Calif.). Users communicate securely through an Aviatis server inside the company's firewall.

"The analogy is 'my Yahoo,' which takes user information over the Web and then gives access to distributed information," said Johannes Ernst, founder and chief executive officer of Aviatis.

Users of LiveDoc get an account on the Aviatis Web site that they must log on to with each use. The Web site authenticates each user, then acts as a delivery mechanism for a piece of Java code that runs inside the user's browser. Users work within that browser, which resides in the server at their own site. As a result, their work never goes onto the Web, but is still accessible to other users through the Internet. "The piece of Java code does not talk to our Aviatis Web site," Ernst said. "It talks only to the server software, which stays behind their firewall."

Ernst said he developed the idea while working at BMW and later honed the concept at Wind River Systems.

The company's founders say that LiveDoc lets product developers in different locations concurrently share such information as models, schematics, specifications, algorithms and test results. It also lets them integrate control system applications from companies like The MathWorks, Wind River and ETAS.

The system's developers say it will be particularly useful for designers of automotive control modules and other embedded electronics. Engine control modules, they say, often require input from the automaker, the primary hardware manufacturer and four or five hardware and software suppliers. Often, such projects can involve as many as 1,000 engineers and two or three years of work. "Engineers on projects like those spend 35 percent to 40 percent of their time just disseminating information," said Washburn.

Engineering design experts say that the problem is getting bigger as electronic systems grow in complexity. "On projects as big as that, the question is always: How do I recognize when someone else is making a change?" said Klaus Mueller-Glaser, professor of electrical engineering at the University of Karlsruhe (Karlsruhe, Germany). "And if a change has been made, how do I get access to it?"

Aviatis founders hope that their technique, which costs $199 per month per user, offers a solution because it puts information up in a central location, but doesn't allow outside access to it, as an ordinary Web site would. "For most companies, the problem is getting worse with each passing year," Ernst said. "And it's not going to go away until people develop some new technology to address it."