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)