About CORBA
The Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) is a standard developed by the Object Management Group (OMG) to provide interoperability among distributed objects. CORBA is the world’s leading middleware solution enabling the exchange of information, independent of hardware platforms, programming languages, and operating systems.
CORBA is essentially a design specification for an Object Request Broker (ORB), where an ORB provides the mechanism required for distributed objects to communicate with one another, whether locally or on remote devices, written in different languages, or at different locations on a network.
The CORBA Interface Definition Language, or IDL, allows the development of language and location-independent interfaces to distributed objects. Using CORBA, application components can communicate with one another no matter where they are located, or who has designed them. CORBA provides the location transparency to be able to execute these applications.
CORBA is often described as a “software bus” because it is a software-based communications interface through which objects are located and accessed.
Object Management
Group (OMG)
The OMG is a non-profit consortium created in 1989 to promote the theory and practice of object technology for the development for distributed operating systems. The goal is to provide a common architectural framework for object-oriented applications based on widely available interface specifications. With over 800 members, representing large and small companies within the computer industry, OMG leads the specification development efforts of CORBA, OMG IDL, IIOP, OMA, UML, MOF, and CWM specifications.
The OMG does not produce software or implementation guidelines, only the specifications to which OMG members respond to in Request for Information (RFI) and Requests for Proposals (RFP). By managing these specifications, the OMG supports the adoption process for the member companies interested in advancing the uses and applications of distributed object-oriented computing.