The increasing momentum of interconnected distributed systems is revolutionizing notions of interoperability. Open standards and simple, scalable approaches to distributing data and applications have resulted in the explosive acceptance of the World Wide Web (WWW), the Java programming language, and object frameworks such as the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA). Emerging internet technologies such as extensible Markup Language (XML) hold the promise of turbocharging the nascent market for collaborative applications and interoperable software components. A key lesson learned from the overnight acceptance of the WWW is that open standards and simplicity pay off; html and http-based tools and applications are attractive for precisely this reason. The breakout of the WWW was not achieved with a complex solution; it was the myriad possibilities that could be built out of the simple building blocks that give the WWW its power. The proposed effort would stimulate the creativity unleashed in the internet community by providing the same flexible, accessible, dynamic environment to distribute and process ATE sensor data. Development of an Automated Test Markup Language (ATML) based on the newly adopted XML standard, would catalyze a new generation of analytic tools exploiting this accessibility
