Number 4: The UVC: a Method for Preserving Digital Documents Proof of Concept
Written by: R. Lorie
Within IBM Research in Almaden, Raymond Lorie was already working on a combined emulation/migration approach to preserve a certain class of digital objects with an approach called the Universal Virtual Computer (UVC).
The main idea consists of archiving a program P along with the data file that decodes the data and returns the information to a future client based on a logical view. The logical view of the data is simple and self-contained enough to be interpreted without any specific software of hardware. Program P is written for the Universal Virtual Computer (UVC) that is general, yet basic enough to continue to be relevant in the future. Given the simplicity of the UVC, it will be relatively easy to write an emulator of the UVC in the future on a real machine of that time. The emulated machine will run the program P and return all data in an easy to understand logical view of the data.
The LTP Study conducted a proof of concept with the KB to test the UVC approach in a library environment. The PDF format was selected because it is the primary data format for electronic publications to be stored in DIAS.