The core of xArch is the instance schema, which was jointly developed by the University of California, Irvine and Carnegie Mellon University. The core specification can be extended to add new features or increase its expressiveness. For examples of extensions to the core, see our extensions page.

The primary source of information about the core schema is available at the official xArch site. However, we are mirroring it below for convenience, and we are also providing some additional documentation/diagrams.

View Schema (TXT) | View Schema (XML)
Additional Documentation: XML Spy Overview | ArchInstance Diagram
Depends on: None

The instance specification provides xArch:

• Architectural Instances: The ability to model the run-time structure of a system in terms of its connector, component, interface, and link instances. The core does not specify any semantic constraints on these entities.
• General Groups: A grouping mechanism to group instance elements in arbitrary ways; for instance: by author, by machine (in a distributed environment), by language, etc.
• Sub-architectures: The ability to specify a component or connector instance that has an internal architecture, also specified in xArch.