Abstract: The technical upgrading and transforming of equipments bring a great challenge to the materials investigation.Metal matrix composites (MMCs) show excellent designability to meet this challenge.Using various inorganic nonmetal materials and carbon with different properties, shapes and size as the reinforcements, MMCs can obtain versatile properties and functions, which is the trend and opportunity of the development of MMCs.Several attempts of the author on the research and design of MMCs are briefly introduced, including the design of self-lubricating interface, non-ablation functional materials, materials with constant stiffness at high temperatures, structural and functional integration of geomagnetic shielding materials, solid solution interface with high strength and ductility, to prove that the property and function design of MMCs are valid.