Middleware systems like CORBA, DCOM or Java RMI define a semantik and an object model for the interaction of distributed objects. Although these systems can be extended by additional services, all these services are fixed to the semantik induced by the underlying system.
AspectIX is an open and more flexible architecture than CORBA, but nevertheless an AspectIX implementation can also host CORBA-compliant applications. AspectIX adopts a fragmented object model, which means that each client owns a local part of the distributed object and that these local parts, called fragments, can interact with one another. A local fragment can be intelligent and carry a part of the distributed object's functionality, or it can be dumb and act as a stub only, as in the CORBA-compliant AspectIX profile.
A client can configure several functional and nonfunctional properties of the object's semantics, so-called aspects, by using a generic configuration interface. A local fragment implementation may be transparently replaced by another one if it cannot fulfill the requirements of a new configuration.
See also: The AspectIX Homepage