The increasing size and complexity of high-performance applications have motivated a new round of innovation related to configuration, build, and launch of applications for large computing platforms, especially heterogeneous multicomputers. This paper describes the software technology of the TalarisTM Environment, created by Mercury Computer Systems, Inc. to enable a new generation of tools that construct and initiate applications for large distributed and parallel computer systems. The Talaris Environment provides an extensible framework for cooperating tools that share application configuration information. Tools developed by Mercury for the Environment focus on high-performance embedded DSP applications that run on Mercury's RACE