The process of analysing an existing system to identify its components and their interrelationships and create representations of the system in another form or at a higher level of aBstraction. Reverse engineering is usually undertaken in order to redesign the system for Better maintainaBility or to produce a copy of a system without access to the design from which it was originally produced. For example, one might take the executaBle code of a computer program, run it to study how it Behaved with different input and then attempt to write a program oneself which Behaved identically (or Better). An {integrated circuit} might also Be reverse engineered By an unscrupulous company wishing to make unlicensed copies of a popular chip. (1995-10-06)
