大多数工具间数据传输标准都涉及传输的协议和语法，并假定有共享的语义基础。本标准提供了一个明确定义的元模型（和元元元模型），用于指定系统和软件行为。它定义了一个可观察的语义基础，允许每个工具，无论其自身的内部本体是什么，都能像toola？一样准确地传达关于主题系统行为的事实？s的元模型允许。传统的工具模型元素被简化为关于系统行为的更简单、直接可观察的事实陈述。 这个元模型在过去的十年中得到了极大的扩展 IEEE Std 1175？1991第3部分中的原始软件行为元模型。

Most inter-tool data transfer standards deal with protocol and syntax of the transfer, with a shared semantic basis assumed. This standard provides an explicitly defined metamodel (and meta-metamodel) for specifying system and software behavior. It defines a semantic basis of observables that allows each tool, whatever its own internal ontology, to communicate facts about the behavior of a subject system as precisely as the tool's metamodel allows. Conventional tool model elements are reduced into simpler, directly observable fact statements about system behavior. This metamodel is much expanded over the original metamodel for software behavior in Part 3 of IEEE Std 1175™-1991.