CAMS is a language and a computer program designed for use in generating machine control data for numerically controlled machine tools. It will accept a sequence of statements in the language (called a "part program") which defines the absolute quantities (dimensions) and shape of a workpiece. It will use this information to calculate a cutter center location path. The cutter center path is then processed by another computer program (called a "postprocessor") into instructions for a specific machine tool which will accurately machine the workpiece.
Thus, input to CAMS is a sequence of statements in the CAMS language read by the CAMS computer programs from an appropriate input device (e.g. terminal keyboard, floppy disk, etc.). Output from CAMS is a sequence of calculated cutter center locations written on an appropriate medium (floppy disk, terminal CRT, punched tape, etc.) to be used by the postprocessor to create machine control data, or to be read by a human for verification of the computations.