ESPRIT '86 — results and achievements

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CONFERENCE REPORT

E S P R I T '86 - R e s u l t s a n d A c h i e v e m e n t s The third annual E S P R I T Conference was held in Brussels, Belgium from September 29 to October 1, 1986. Over 1000 participants from 17 countries attended the presentations and visited the 27 demonstrations with over 60 computer systems being displayed. The first two days of the conference were devoted to presentations on the results and achievements of E S P R I T projects. The plenary and parallel sessions covered E S P R I T action areas of Microelectronics, Software Technology, Advanced Information Processing, Office Systems, Computer Integrated Manufacturing, and the network aspects of the Information Exchange System grouped into horizontal technology sessions. On the third day of the conference, the I T Forum day, industrial and political leaders discussed the theme "'European IT: Building Momentum". J-M. Cadiou, Director of Information Technologies at ESPRIT, began the conference with a report on the achievements of E S P R I T to date and on the plans for the second phase. He pointed out that ESPRIT's objectives are to foster industrial cooperation, to build the technology base needed for the early 1990"s, and to pave the way for international standards. Cadiou felt that the conference provided an opportunity for the participants to get a first-hand report on the substantial work going on in ESPRIT and on the many results already obtained. The interaction was particularly useful because of the necessary balance between the various specialized areas and between the different European nationalities. We feature below a detailed report on the presentations made at this event.

North-Holland Future Generations Computer Systems 3 (1987) 59-73

Plenary Project Sessions Project Session 1 Silicon Compilation System

In the ESPRIT P97 project, IMEC, Bell Telephone, Philips, Ruhr University Bochum, Siemens and Silvar-Lisco are jointly developing and testing a CAD system for quick turn-around design of application specific VLSI chips for digital signal processing applications. According to H. De Man, J. Rabaey, P. Six and L. Claesen (IMEC, Heverlee, Belgium), digital signal processing is rapidly becoming the cornerstone of numerous systems in telecommunication, speech- and image processing, digital audio and video data-processing in general. Such systems, they assert, can profit enormously from proprietary applications specific IC's, provided their design is supported by powerful true silicon compilers in order to shorten the design time which is often a critical bottleneck for product innovation. The project was described in a presentation entitled "ESPRIT P97: Towards a Silicon Compilation System for VLSI Digital Signal Processing". The Workcell Controller

The goal of ESPRIT Project No. 932 is to use expert system technology to fill the gap between production planning and the execution of work being performed at the factory floor. W. Meyer (Philips GmbH Forschungslaboratorium Hamburg, F.R.G.) reported on the architecture chosen for implementation of expert systems for planning quality assurance, preventive maintenance. He discussed the use of SADT and GRAI methodologies to analyze the plant set-up. In addition, Meyer focussed on the AI simulation of one workcell controller module in detail and talked about the experience gained so far in using AI tools in the

0376-5075/87/$3.50 © 1987, ElsevierSciencePublishers B.V. (North-Holland)

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CIM environment. His presentation was entitled "Knowledge-Based Real-Time Supervision in CIM - The Workcell Controller".

Project Session II

PCTE (Project No. 32) The project "A Basis for a Portable Common Tool Environment" (PCTE) has been carried out within the ESPRIT software technology area by a consortium of Bull (France), GEC and ICL (U.K.), Nixdorf and Siemens (F.R.G.) and Olivetti (Italy). The purpose of the project is to design and implement a software system to serve as a basis for the development of complete, modern Software Engineering Environments. The PCTE Project Group described the objectives of the project and discussed the results which have been achieved in the three years since the start of the project in 1983.

Description Systems (Project P440) G. Attardi, S. Diomedi, M. Simi (DELPHI SpA, Italy), P. Maes, L. Steels, K. Van Marcke (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), C. Benoit and C. Benoit (Lab. de Marcoussis, France) envision next-generation computers as capable of handling descriptions which are sufficiently natural that they can be understood and manipulated by novice users. A user introduces and changes descriptions of objects through a powerful graphical interface, and causes reasoning by proposing goals to be resolved. To achieve these capabilities, the researchers are working at three levels: (1) description systems and advanced user interfaces, (2) knowledge representation tools, and (3) supporting software architectures. Their working hypothesis is that this leap in computer technology can best be achieved by taking the message-passing model of computation as the foundation. The results have already been exploited, and resulted in product sales in Japan and the USA. They feel that this Project No. 440 is a very successful ESPRIT project and pointed out the impact of the results on the industrial AI community in Europe.

Project Session III

Backbone Wideband Network The ESPRIT Project No. 73 aims at building a backbone wideband network for the interconnection of heterogeneous local area networks. After discussing the major characteristics of the network architecture, A. Danthine, M. Duroaux, M. De Prycker, J.L. Barbut and A. Wegner (University of Liege, Belgium) presented the major steps of the specification and the design of the physical and the MAC layers of the backbone fiber optic network. The interconnection of the heterogeneous LANs relies not only on the backbone network but also on the high performance gateways. The access to the public domain is based on a gateway giving access to the wideband public services and an experiment of video conferencing at 2 Mbps is planned. Another gateway, the authors explained, gives access to a wideband satellite channel. After the installation of the prototype, an extensive performance evaluation is being planned; this methodology was presented in the status report.

Automated Document Entry System (PODA) To allow both reproduction and processing of interchanged documents, an Office Document Architecture (ODA) and Office Document Interchange Formats (ODIF) have been standardized. Tools were developed on the basis of these standards. A document editor which complies with the standard must manage two structures, the logical structure and the layout structure, and must be able to map automatically from the logical to the layout structure. The Automated Document Entry system provides a set of enhancement and recognition processes resulting in an electronic representation in agreement with the Office Document Architecture of a paper document captured by a multi-level scanner. G. KrSnert, G. Lauber, J. LSrscher, E. Meynieux, W. Postl, U. Schneider, S. Seisen and K. Tombre (Siemens, F.R.G., TITN and CRI de Nancy, France) introduced the main processings in their presentation and emphasized the segmentation of different content types. They discussed the recognition of the document structure as well as the geometric elements.

Conference Report

Project Session IV

KBS in Telecommunications (KRITIC-P387) G.L Williamson, J.W. Butler, S.G. King (British Telecommunications), E. Gaussens (Framentec S.A., France) and V.H. Khong (Univ. of London) described the work leading to a prototype Knowledge Based System (KBS). The KBS, they explained, is targetted at control of advanced telecommunications switching systems. The implications of the prototyping work on development environments and future KBS architectures was also discussed in the presentation. The overall objective of the KRITIC project (No. 387) is to make possible the development of KBS for complex industrial application areas. The project addresses the task of constructing KBS for use in industrial control application areas.

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speed digital circuits. Two main phases have been identified and organized: the first refers to an intermediate step at the 1 micron level; the second to the final submicron CMOS family. By the end of its second existing year SPECTRE is entering in one of its exchange phases between the tasks working on the elaboration of elementary processes and the demonstration lab assembling a complete 1 micron LSI process. J-P. Klein and the SPECTRE Task Leaders (CNET, Grenoble, France and others) presented these two aspects and discussed the exchanges between the tasks and the partners for the first demonstration.

Parallel Sessions Advanced Microelectronics I: Process Overview

3D Integration SEDOS Project The objectives of the SEDOS project are to assess, define, and develop formal description techniques and related tools for the design, specification, validation and implementation of hierarchies of software in complex distributed systems. The main specificities of the design are emphasized and related to the necessity of starting from a formal description technique (FDT). The selected approach is based on the development of two formal techniques which will support the design effort, the two FDT developed within ISO, namely ESTELLE and LOTOS, because of their impacts and interests. ESTELLE, LOTOS, the objectives, the present status and the main results of the project (No. 410) were presented at the conference by M. Diaz, J.P. Courtiat (CNRS, France), P. Dembinski (ADI, France) and E. Brinksma (University of Twente, The Netherlands). Their presentation was entitled "Formal Description Techniques in SEDOS: Software Environment for the Design of Open Distributed Systems". Spectre SPECTRE (Strategic Project for European CMOS Technology) aims at developing the necessary building blocks for a submicron CMOS process, primarily dedicated to the production of high

According to M. Montier (Thomson Semiconductors, Grenoble, France), 3D structures bring novel capabilities for multifunctions or parallel processing and offer new possibilities to increase density and speed. Various applications have been studied to quantify the real advantages and performances of the 3D integration. The results obtained show relatively poor improvements in density and speed for standard logic applications initially chosen. On the contrary, 3D seems very promising for novel mixed technologies like Smart Power, Image Processors or Integrated systems. Montier described the actual status of Project No. 245 and discussed the main technological and design results. A presentation of the collaborative efforts and the progressive convergence towards 3D objectives was also made. Submicron Bipolar Technology The overall objective of ESPRIT Project No. 281 is the development of a complete processing sequence for the production of very high performance bipolar ICs. The key features are a packing density of about 5000 devices per mm 2, a gate delay time of about 70 ps, a power delay product of 0.1 pJ and a multilayer metallization technique with up to 4 or 5 layers. W.M. Werner, A. Linseen, E. Gonauser, H. Kaiser, H. Eggers and E. Rehaber explained that the field of application of this

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advanced bipolar technology is to be seen in high-speed data and signal processing products as a result of very high intrinsic speed and driving capability. In the field of signal processing, the main advantage will result from a reduction of the gate delay. The new technology, according to the work group, will provide an increase of the signal processing speed from about 600 Mbit/s at the time being to more than 2 Gbit/s. BICMOS Project

The BICMOS Project (No. 412) is a technology project aimed at pre-competitive research of mixed Bipolar and MOS processes. According to P.A.H. Hart (Philips Research Labs., The Netherlands), U. Biirker and A. Wieder (Siemens Research Labs., F.R.G.), the combination of Bipolar and MOS offers great advantages. The technological challenge, the scientists pointed out, is to arrive at an economical process comprising the right compromise to enable the electronic designer to exploit the advantages for the particular area of application. In their lecture, Hart, Biirker and Wieder first outlined the electronic areas of interest, then considered which structures are possible and, finally, made some observations with regard to suitability in application fields. They then discussed the options selected and their targets and described some important results of the project. Electronic Packaging and lnterconnection

According to J. Barrett (University College Cork), A. Hudson (Lucas Stability Electronics), M.G. Sage (BPA) and C.H. Taylour (British Aerospace), the most common form of assembling electronics today comprises the through-hole mounting of devices on printed circuit boards (PCBs). In particular, the through-hole mounting method and its associated interconnection and component packaging are now encountering problems arising from the increasing complexity and speed of ICs. The solutions to these problems involve completely new IC packages and much high density interconnection technologies. Without these innovations, the authors contended, the revolutionary advances currently taking place in ICs will be lost. The rapid growth of the IC industry has tended to hide the fact that not only do other

components comprise a larger market value, but IC packaging and interconnection have become major barriers to further system developments. Barrett and colleagues looked at the driving forces affecting IC packaging and interconnection, and reported on the work carried out in Project 544. Silicon TFTs

LCDs dominate the portable displays market. Thin-film transistor addressing of LCDs would allow an increase in display size and complexity to levels adequate for word processor and graphics displays. The aim of Project No. 833 is to investigate a viable technology for the fabrication of large area (A5 to A4) complex (up to 1000 addressable lines) LCDs based on polycrystalline and amorphous silicon thin film transistor (TFT) active matrices. Good performance, the project leaders reported, has been achieved for both amorphous and polycrystalline silicon TFTs and both have been successfully incorporated into small test displays. Results were presented at the conference and the relative merits of the two types of TFT were discussed, as was work on display assembly. Extension of the work to a process for full production of complex A4 displays was outlined. Members of the project are affiliated with GEC Research Limited (U.K.), Thomson-CSF (France), AEG-Forschungsinstitut (F.R.G.), A / S Modulex (Denmark), ROC, CNET (France) and University of Thessaloniki (Greece). Compound Semiconductor Integrated Circuits

Project 843 is the main thrust of ESPRIT on digital integrated circuits using GaAs based MESFETs and HEMTs. It involves a consortium comprising six of the leading companies within the European Community who have the necessary technology base and design capability to fabricate GaAs ICs to compete in the European and world markets. The consortium is investigating all aspects of the IC technology, from basic material understanding, through state of the art processing and lithographic techniques to optimized design and efficient testing of fabricated devices. In a report collated by J. Mun (STC Technology Limited, U.K.), some of the more exciting aspects of the consortium's activities were highlighted.

Conference Report

Software Technology h Development Methods

Graspin Kernel G. Daniele (Olivetti SpA, Italy) explained that the goal of the Graspin project is to develop a methodology to support the software rife cycle of a project. Graspin includes methods, techniques and tools which allow the development of the analysis, design, programming, verification, testing and documentation phases of a project. Graspin allows the use of graphic and linear languages in order to carry out all phases of the software life cycle. The feature of Graspin (Project No. 125) is to support various phases of a standard software life cycle and different languages with a unique syntax driven kernel, called Passive Kernel System. Daniele pointed out that all documents produced during the software rife cycle are organized according to the methodology in the database. Graspin Approach In another lecture concerning Project No. 125, B. Dehm and T. Haensse (Siemens AG, F.R.G.) noted that GRASPIN aims at establishing a personal workstation for the systematic development of complex and reliable software systems. All software development phases will be supported by a set of coherent methods, notations and tools. The requirement phase focusses on graphics. Algebraic specifications for the definition of abstract datatypes are extended by concepts to handle distributed systems. Dehm and Haensse pointed out that GRASPIN emphasizes formal specifications to enable intensive computational assistance. Documents are validated against informal external intentions and symbolically interpreted in early development stages. Ada programs are converted into equational specifications by means of symboric transformation to enable the verification with formal requirements. Algebraic specifications are transformed into rules and checked for consistency and completeness by rewriting rule techniques.

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The methodology integrates program construction and verification during the development process. User and implementor start with a formal specification, the interface or "contract". This initial specification is then gradually transformed into an optimized machine-oriented executable program. The final version is obtained by stepwise application of transformation rules. The strict methodology of Program Development by Transformation is completely supported by the system. Any kind of activity is conceptually and technically regarded as a transformation of a "program" at one of the system layers. This provides for a uniform user interface, reduces system complexity, and allows the construction of system components in a highly generative way. The presentation entitled "PROgram Development by SPECification and TRAnsformation" was organized by the PROSPECTRA team ( B. Krieg-Briickner, B. Hoffmann, H. Ganzinger, M. Broy, R. Wilhelm, U. Mrneke, B. Weisgerber, A.D. MeGettrick, L G. Campbell and G. Winterstein ).

Advanced Infi~rmati~m Proee~ing: Kn-~ledge Fin gineering

Numeric and Symbolic Techniques Y. Kodratoff M. Manago (Univ. Paris-Sud & CNRS, France), J. Blythe, C Smallman (GEC Research, U.K.) and T. Andro (COGNITECH, France) described the main principles by which an integration of two approaches to Machine Learning can be performed. The work is being done under the ESPRIT contract P1063, the INSTIL project, which is concerned with the application of machine learning to knowledge acquisition for intelligent knowledge based systems. The intended approach is to integrate several fundamentally different approaches to Machine Learning and apply the composite system to knowledge acquisition for commercially available expert systems. The presentation was entitled "The Integration of Numeric and Symbolic Techniques in Learning".

PROSPECTRA

Models, Structure and Abstraction

The PROSPECTRA project aims at providing a rigorous methodology for developing correct Ada software and a comprehensive support system.

ESPRIT Project No. 1098 is attempting to apply the philosophy of structured development methodologies for software to Knowledge Based Sys-

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tems. According to S.A. Hayward (STC Technology, Ltd., U.K.), this approach should support the developer of such systems by providing models at appropriate levels of abstraction as development proceeds. This brings out the critical structural issues for each stage of understanding and decision. Hayward discussed the project in a lecture entitled "Models, Structure and Abstraction: Issues for an Emerging Methodology".

Software Technology II: KBS Techniques KBPA Revisited The Knowledge Based Programmer's Assistant (KBPA) is an interactive tool which assists programmers in the design and implementation of software. In their presentation G.C. Oddy, K.J. Poulter and T.N. Clark (GEC Research Ltd., U.K.) were particularly concerned with the knowledge representation and manipulation techniques employed by the KBPA. They gave an overview of the major components of the system and showed, by means of an extended example, how these components work together to provide the facilities offered. Their presentation was entitled "The Knowledge Based Programmer's Assistant Revisited: Representation, Reasoning and Review".

A S P I S Project According to A.C. Hughes (GEC Research Ltd., U.K.), the ASPIS Project (No. 401) will produce an environment for developing software systems. Its main novelty is the use of knowledge based tools, called assistants, to aid the developer in making decisions about the analysis and design of the system. The system will handle formal development of software and will allow specifications and designs to be prototyped during development. An assistant to aid the re-use of old specifications and designs will also be developed in the ASPIS environment. Hughes described the current status of the project and gave an overview of the knowledge based assistants.

Office Systems I: Workstations and MMI Overview of UIMS E. Brown (Institute of Computer Science, Crete, Greece) explained that a User Interface Management System (UIMS) is a system for specifying and producing a UI independent of the development of the application code. In the UIMS system (part of project No. 82) the user interface is modelled as a conversation between human and computer. The media of this conversation are the I / O devices of the workstation, rather than the voices of humans. The User Interface is the language in which this conversation occurs. The UIMS provides the means of constructing these languages, producing the software for the machine to understand it. The system is desigried to realize typical advantages of a UIMS: quick User Interface implementation, easy modification, and isolation of application details. Additionally, Brown pointed out, the system deals with concurrent device operation and multiple threads of dialogue, both of which are unresolved problems in previous UIMS systems. Author Environments According to G. Kempen, P. Desain, L. Konst, K. De Smedt (University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands) and G. Anbeek (Ocr-Nederland, The Netherlands), Artificial Intelligence techniques for Natural Language Processing enable the construction of knowledge-based editorial software systems which greatly facilitate the preparation, manipulation and translation of full-text documents. They can offer many new forms of support which are far beyond the reach of present-day word processors. The authors proposed Author Environment or Author System as collective terms for such text editing tools. After a somewhat principled discussion of what they mean by representing a natural-language text in a computer, the authors described the goals, design, implementation and functionality of the Author Environment they are developing as part of ESPRIT Project No. 82 which aims at the construction of an intelligent office workstation. They focussed their presentation on the linguistic modules and the user interface.

Conference Report

S O M I W Workstation SOMIW, the ESPRIT Project No. 367, a 125 man-years project, is composed of 14 tasks and involves 9 partners. The project covers the fields of distributed operating systems, speech recognition and optical character recognition. Its main value lies in the integration of all its hardware and software components. P. Guilloux and B. Servolle (Bull, DEA, France) focussed on the integration topic and then reported on one specific task, Speech Management. Their presentation was entitled "The SOMIW Workstation: Integration and Speech Management". PICA Project The PICA Project, No. 563, aims at producing a method of compressing a photovideotex image to less than 1 bit/pel and one that can be decompressed at a data rate of 64 Kbit/s. Several established and some new algorithms are under consideration, and encouraging results down to ] bit/pel have been obtained. Real time decoding of several techniques have been demonstrated. G.P. Hudson and D.J. Tricker (British Telecommunications plc, U.K.) provided an elaborate description of the project in a presentation entitled "PICA - Photovideotex Image Compression Algorithm".

Computer Integrated Manufacture 1: Architectures, Methods and Tools for Integration Open Systems Architecture ESPRIT Project No. 688 concerns the definition of CIM-OSA, i.e. an Open Systems Architecture for Computer Integrated Manufacture. It is performed by the AMICE Consortium consisting of 19 major companies throughout Europe. J. Huysentruyt (CAP GEMINI SOGETI) and P. Russell (ICL) provided an overview of the project and discussed the results obtained so far. The results indicate directions of on-going research. Huysentruyt and Russell contend that a CIM Architecture has extremely important consequences, both for users and for IT suppliers and even more for European industry, as an architecture with adequate characteristics, supported by industry

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and by standardization efforts, constitutes the enabling integration technology for CIM. CAD Interfaces ESPRIT Project No. 322 aims at developing powerful interfaces between the various C A D / C A E tools in a CIM environment. J. Leuridan (Leuven Measurement and Systems, Belgium) and I. Bey (Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe, F.R.G.) provided a detailed discussion of some of the technical achievements so far in the development of specifications for the exchange of product definition and analysis data. As a result of team proposals and efforts, a file structure and syntax has been defined which is applicable for both product definition and analysis data. Leuridan and Bey discussed the essential elements of the proposed file structure and syntax and indicated direction of further work. Their presentation was entitled "Development of Specifications for Exchange of Product Definition and Analysis Data". Robot Integration into CIM On behalf of G. Spur V. Kirchoff (IPK, Berlin, F.R.G.) presented the objectives and results of the ESPRIT Project No. 623, the Operational Control of Robot Systems Integration into CIM: "Systems Planning, Implicit and Explicit Programming". The main research areas of this project are the Planning System, including the computer-aided design of products and production equipment, and the Programming System, including robot control technology. Also included in the discussion was the connection between CAD systems and the robot. As a result of dedicated investigations, it has been established, Kirchoff reported, that the prime emphasis for future research concerning robot integration must be put on the operational control level of the CIM System. Double Approach A. Bonnevie (PROCOS A/S, Denmark) and P. Krzesinski (Fabrique Nationale Herstal S.A., Belgium) described some interim results from the analysis phase of Project No. 418: Open CAM System. The project is aiming at an architecture which supports the integration process of flexible manufacturing cells and systems. A control archi-

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tecture, a functional decomposition, a reference model, the application of the GRAI method and some connected problems were presented and discussed. The presentation was entitled "A Double Approach for Analysis and Design of Production Systems".

the process of modelling. The methodology considered in this project consists in progressively building embedded Petri-net models from highlevel specification toward a realization model, checking at each step the equivalence between the new model and the older one. PARIG

Information Exchange Systems CARLOS

The CARLOS project aims at furthering the interworking possibilities amongst both R & D communities, such as ESPRIT, and commercial environments. This involves the development of modular system components, which provide users of public data networks with value added services according to ISO standards for OSI..in particular, advances in the management of heterogeneous OSI network resources, and the interworking between physically decoupled parts of an OSI end system represent a considerable step forward in the practical implementation of OSI systems. D. Cochrane and S. Hamer presented salient features of the CARLOS architecture and stressed the applicability of the CARLOS achievements to the furthering of the commercial acceptance and use of OSI systems.

H. Oerlemans (Philips Research Laboratories, The Netherlands) presented a global overview of the research activities of Project No. 415, "Parallel Architectures and Languages for AIP, A VLSIDirected Approach". One of the main aims of the project, Oerlemans explained, is to investigate the possibilities for reduction of execution times for a wide range of applications through the use of concurrency. Architectures and programming languages, which allow a high degree of concurrency, were researched. Oerlemans pointed out that the overall aim of Project 415 is to clarify the understanding of parallelism, from the analysis and formulation of an application, through the semantics of concurrency in programming languages, to the principles upon which concurrent architectures should be based. An overview of the structure of the project was given, followed by a global overview of the various approaches taken by the partners in the project. Finally, some conclusions were presented.

M E L / S T / A I P : System Architecture and Design

Functional Languages

Petri-Nets

ESPRIT Project No. 881 aims at the development of a functional language and associated support environment for the description of various aspects of a system at multiple levels of abstracts. The structure, behavior, timing and cost of a system are some of the aspects that were described by J. De Man (Bell Telephone Mfg. Co., Belgium). The range of systems that is considered covers analog electronic circuits, digital devices (including VLSI) and programmed systems. The language can be used both at the system design level and at the (hardware and software) implementation level. De Man pointed out that it supports an algebraic, transformational proof style but can also be executed on a machine. His lecture was entitled "Formal Description of Systems by Means of Functional Languages".

Efficient results of the work on methodology of a design using Petri-nets (Project No. 10) were presented by G. Prevost and M. Currat (Bull Systrmes, France). The scope of the methodology spreads from a high level description of specification of the architecture of a machine to a hardware description at the logical level of a realization. The main tool is a predicate-transition Petrinet modelling of the system using tokens and variables for labelling transitions. The tool for analyzing is based on an efficient algorithm for looking at the marking graph of Petri-net. This tool permits a practical building of the model. In particular, Prevost and Currat showed that conformity to specifications can be checked during

Conference Report

VLSI Design Data According to P. Dewilde, J. Annevelink, R. van Leuken and P. oan der Wolf (Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands), with the field of Computer Aided Circuit Design moving into the realm of "intelligent systems", the logical representation of design data becomes of utmost importance. In their presentation, the authors showed how the multiview and hierarchical structure of the VLSI design data can be explicitly exploited to increase design efficiency. It then becomes obvious that a versatile data model is needed to represent the structure of the data. The authors defined a semantic data model and showed how it is applied to produce a useful schema. Finally, they showed how an object oriented design data manager is constructed and how it is capable of satisfying the requirements of (interactive) efficiency and of transparent handling of the data at a high level of abstraction. The lecture was entitled "Intelligent VLSI Data Management".

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(Inmos Ltd., U.K.) presented the current state of ESPRIT Project No. 1085. The goal of the project is to define and develop a prototype high performance computer with supporting software and a range of applications to demonstrate its performance. The machine will be modular, based on reconfigurable nodes of transputers with the configuration being through software controlled switches. The initial programming environment is Occam with High Level Languages and an advanced operating system being developed. Software is being developed for applications in physics and engineering problems, CAD, CAM and image and signal processing applications to demonstrate the feasibility of the machine and to ease the transition to wide scale exploitation. The hardware objectives, software objectives and applications were presented in the lecture and the progress in meeting these objectives was described.

A I P / O S I: Advanced Storage and Retrieval

Design System for Gate Arrays

M U L T O S Project

The architecture of an "open" design system for gate array ICs was presented by J.A.G. Jess and A.G.J. Slenter (Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands). The system is open with respect to the type of gate array and with respect to the tools for logic design, placement and routing. The system is designed to support small and medium scale users of gate arrays. It puts the emphasis of enhancing the flexibility of the (European) user in adapting new types of gate arrays. Jess and Slenter emphasized those features of the system that are responsible for its open character. Some results and performance data were also provided in the lecture. The system is part of the "Multiview VLSI-Design System ICD", supported by the E.C. under ESPRIT contract 991. The position at the gate array design system in the overall philosophy of the ICD-system and its relation to the contributions of other partners in 991 were discussed, too.

According to the MULTOS group, the document filling and retrieval functions of an office information system have to meet special requirements placed by the office application environment. MULTOS (MULTimedia Office Server) is an office document filing and retrieval system. It aims at providing comprehensive filing and retrieval services for office documents comprising text, image and voice. It is designed to support retrieval by content, very large storage capacity and standard document representation. In a presentation entitled "Office Document Retrieval in MULTOS", the MULTOS group discussed the design of the document retrieval function developed within the context of the MULTOS architecture.

High Performance Computer J.G. Harp (Royal Signals and Radar Est., U.K.), C.R. Jesshope (University Southampton, U.K.), T. Muntean (IMAG, France) and C. Whitby-Strevens

Project M I N S T R E L In a presentation entitled "Content Retrieval of Text in an Office Filing Facility", M. Sherwood-Smith and A.F. Smeaton (University College Dublin, Ireland) outlined the work that is being carried out in Project MINSTREL (Models for INformation STorage and REtrieval) and reviewed the achievements and objectives of the

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project. They highlighted one important area: A key functional requirement for office filing and retrieval is the ability to retrieve unformatted text documents on content. Effective content retrieval on unformatted text is an essential aspect of an office filing system. Sherwood-Smith and Smeaton noted that this is being researched in Project MINSTREL for integration within the office information model and with a view to efficient implementation. The results in this area were discussed in the presentation.

Fact Model The principal features of the fact model were presented by G.M. Sacco (University of Turin, Iraly). The fact model, he explained, is an irreducible semantic data model designed for complex, multi-media applications such as office information systems. The goals of the model are simplicity, economy of design concepts, conciseness, flexibility, and high user assistance. Sacco pointed out further that novel features of the model include arbitrary type taxonomies, multitype attributes, powerful integrity constraint specification, and the ability to resolve incompletely specified queries. His presentation was entitled "The Fact Model: A Semantic Data Model for Complex Databases".

Prolog Implementation E. Deno~l, D. Roelants and M. Vauclair (Philips Research Lab., Brussels, Belgium) studied in detail the functionality of a tight coupling interface between Prolog and a relational database management system. In particular, they described a systematic approach to translate Prolog goals into relational queries. Major concerns were to preserve the semantics of Prolog and to use as much as possible the capabilities of the database management system. Their Prolog implementation of the translation handles conjunction, disjunction, negation and a Prolog equivalent of database aggregation. Their work (Project No. 316) can serve as a basis for the implementation of a complete tight coupling interface.

S T / A l P : Formal Approaches

RAISE RAISE is an acronym for a "Rigorous Approach to Industrial Software Engineering". The aim of the RAISE project (No. 315) is to construct a method, based on mathematics, for the development of software in industry, together with a collection of computer based tools closely related to the method. E. Meiling (Dansk Datamtik Center, Denmark) and C.W. George (STC Technology Ltd., U.K.) described the RAISE software development method and its associated specification language based on VDM. Tools supporting the method and language were discussed and the current status of the RAISE project was presented.

Syntax Formalism The goal of the GIPE project (No. 348) is to generate interactive programming environments from formal language definitions. J. Heering and P. Klint (Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science, Amsterdam, The Netherlands) envisage language definitions consisting of three parts: a syntax section, a static constraints section, and a dynamic semantics section. An initial version of the language definition formalism is being developed. In their presentation, Heering and Klint concentrated on the syntax section and introduced a new formalism which allows concrete and abstract syntax of specification (and other) languages to be defined simultaneously. The new formalism, they said, can be combined with a variety of specification languages. By doing so, they obtain fully general user definable syntax. Examples of this were given in the context of algebraic specifications.

Language COLD A survey was given by the METEOR project group of the formal design language COLD, underlying the first version of the software development method being constructed in the METEOR project (No. 432). Background information concerning COLD was provided and its design goals were discussed. The structure of the language and the main language constructs were presented. The notion of a "design" was discussed and the rela-

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tion with other approaches was indicated. The group consisted of L.M.G. Feijs, H.B.M. Jonkers, J.H. Obbink (Philips Labs., Eindhoven, The Netherlands), G.P.J. Koymans, G.R. Renardel de Lavalette (University of Utrecht, The Netherlands) and P.H. Rodenburg (Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science, Amsterdam). Design Calculus The ToolUse project (No. 510) aims at the development of a language to describe software developments (DEVA) and an environment to support software designers in its use. In a presentation entitled "Program Development Using a Design Calculus", S. Jiihnichen, F.A. Hussain and M. Weber (Universit~it Karlsruhe, F.R.G.) briefly described the concepts of DEVA and reported on the first experiments in the use of the language. The fold-unfold method applied to functional programs was demonstrated as part of the presentation. The strategies described in the lecture not only show the feasibility of their approach but also show the need for sophisticated pattern matching in order to make the DEVA program executable. Office Systems II: Communications

E-Interface After reviewing the objectives of ESPRIT Project No. 43, the group leaders gave the project conclusions leading to an attractive basis for the E-Interface. They then presented the mechanism of the E-Interface, describing the E-Interface signal structure which provides a means for integrated services access. The implementation of this interface was then discussed, together with a plan for a VLSI realization, chosen for the purpose of an E-Interface demonstrator. The group consisted of the following members: J. van Egmond, A.N. Slater, P.J. See, P. Hardie, R. van der Meer, A. Krempf M. Schwartz, D. Roffinella and J. Bokel. Their presentation was entitled "The LAN-Technology Independent Interface: E". LION ESPRIT Project No. 169 aims at the development of a Local Integrated Optical Network

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(LION). According to J. Apel, A. Monvoisin, G. Roullet and D. Sin (TITN-CGE, France), this is a high bandwidth Multiservice LAN with a transmission rate of 140 Mbit/s on optical fibre. The project started in September 1984 and installation of a prototype is planned in 1988. The project leaders described the packet switching module architecture and the different networks and application connections which have been developed. Their presentation was entitled "Packet Access System in LION (Local Integrated Optical Network)". Communication Systems Architecture The Communication Systems Architecture (CSA) project (No. 237) is concerned with the development and demonstration of an architecture to satisfy the computing and communication requirements in the office. The main objectives of the project are to cater for integrated services in a distributed environment. CSA will not be visible to the end user but will provide protection to the office system designers from the ever changing performance and functionality of underlying computing and communication resources. The Project group consists of: J-P. Behr (Philips GmbH), G. Crisp (Plessey Networks and Office Systems), J.E. Dobson (MAR1 Advanced Microelectronics, Ltd.), S. Haj Houssain (Bull), R. Kraemer (Philips GmbH), M.Ph. Neyer (Socirt6 Grn~rale de Service et de Gestion) and G.M. Tomlinson (MAR1, Ltd.). CSA, they explained, is a recursive architecture based on a set of abstract object-oriented machines addressing the problems of heterogeneity and distribution of resources within groups of users and the problems of communication between them. UCOL Project ESPRIT Project No. 249, "Ultra-Wideband Coherent Optical Lan" alms at establishing the feasibility of an ultra-wideband local network using coherent optical techniques by identifying the most appropriate system structure and component types for such a network. A first section of work has carried out studies on applications and an evaluation of possible UCOL structures, while a second section has been directed towards theoretical assessment of appropriate components and subsystems performance. Current work is expect-

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ed to define a feasibility model as the basis of a demonstrator. An overview of current and future work was given at the conference by A. Fioretti, C.A. Rocchini, M. Valli (Face-RC, Italy), P. Wilkinson, A. Haylett (Marconi-RC, U.K.) and P. Pozzi (Crei, Italy).

INCA Demonstrator P.T. Kirstein and G.J. Knight (University College London, U.K.) described the planning which has taken place for the Project INCA Demonstrator. They listed some of the aims and the applications which are being pursued, the choices of communications protocols that have been made, and the facilities which are being made available. In view of the enlarged number of partners in the project, the considerably larger range of interests, and the importance of demonstrating interoperability, a large-scale Demonstrator is considered an essential ingredient of the INCA project (No. 395). Kirstein and Knight aimed at indicating the general lines of the INCA Demonstrator in their presentation. Advanced Microelectronies II: Basic Technological Studies

Photodiode and JFETs The two principal elements for a monolithically integrated " p i n / F E T " fibre-optic receiver have been fabricated. The photodiode is a planar design embedded in an InP substrate. According to P.J.G. Dawe, D.A.H. Spear and G.H.B. Thompson (STC Technology Ltd., Essex, U.K.), it has good performance and extremely low capacitance. Two types of JFET used compound semiconductors on InP substrates. A transconductance of 95 m S / m m has been achieved. Integration experiments show that these devices are compatible for integration. Such an integrated receiver should show markedly better performance than the present "hybrid" types. The presentation was entitled "Planar Embedded GaInAs Photodiode and InP-Based JFETs for Use in a Monolithically Integrated Receiver".

Hirst Research Center, U.K.), Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) offers advantageous ways to grow nearly all of the structures needed for several of the technological developments in microelectronics. Apart from the undoubtedly essential role of MBE for basic research, the method will gain an increasing importance for industrial application. In their lecture Kasper, Herzog and Pawlik described the principle, apparatus and procedure of Silicon Molecular Beam Epitaxy (Si-MBE). The aims and objectives of this ESPRIT Project No. 305 were then explained and recent progress was described.

CMOS Technology J-L. Ledys (Matra Harris Semiconductors, Nantes, France) described a new isolation scheme, suitable for scaled down VLSI MOS circuits. The scheme is based on the use of LPCVD silicon oxynitride films as masking material during selective oxidation. Ledys demonstrated that by varying the overall composition of the layers, this material is definitely able to circumvent the drawbacks of the usual LOCOS technique. Moreover, Ledys asserted, process simplification occurs before any more advanced isolation technologies become manufacturable, which makes the scheme even more attractive. The presentation was entitled "LPCVD Silicon Oxynitrides for LOCOS Isolation in CMOS Technology"., Molecular Engineering Advances in the development of new organic materials for nonlinear optical applications in the fields of optical communications and signal processing were described by S. Allen (Imperial Chemical Industries, plc., U.K.). According to Allen, theoretical calculations have led to the prediction of new, exciting families of molecules which are now being investigated experimentally. Results of experiments on molecules in solution, liquid crystalline materials and Langmuir Blodgett thin films were reported on and their relevance to future work on device development was discussed. Allen's lecture was entitled "ESPRIT Project 443: Molecular Engineering for Optoelectronics".

SI-MBE Layers

Quantum Semiconductor Devices

According to E. Kasper, H.J. Herzog (AEG Research Center, F.R.G.) and M. Pawlik (GEC

M.J. Kelly (GEC Research Ltd., U.K.) and C. Weisbuch (Thomson CSF, France) described re-

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cent progress in ESPRIT 514 "Quantum Semiconductor Devices", involving the collaboration between GEC, Thomson CSF and five English and French universities. In their presentation, entitled "Quantum Semiconductor Devices 1986", they reviewed the main achievements within the first eighteen months of the project and placed the project into a world context. Kelly and Weisbuch also described the likely future trends in research on future electron devices. Office Systems III: Office Systems Science and Human Factors

FA OR FAOR (Project No. 56) offers an innovative approach to analyzing requirements so that the resulting office systems will be both effective in application and acceptable to their users. According to G. Schaefer (DIFOA, F.R.G.), P. O'Donovan, M. Harper (STL, UK), R. Hansjee (EAC Data, Denmark) and M. Domke (GMD, F.R.G.), FAOR blends the identification and analysis of essential organizational functions with considerations of human and social perspectives of the office. The FAOR approach rests on the integrated use of three components: soft systems methodology (SSM), a library of specifying office perspectives (termed GOFOR) using Petri nets as a formal means of representation, and a set of instruments. By viewing the office as a "human activity system", SSM, according to the authors, helps with identifying problem issues and stakeholder viewpoints as a prerequisite to focussing on a subsequent, more detailed analysis. Office Modelling In the framework of the ESPRIT Program, the OSSAD Project (No. 285) aims at producing methods for the analysis and design of office support systems, from both the organizational and technological points of view. This aim, according to P. Dumas (Universit6 de Toulon, France), G. de Petra (IPACRI, Italy) and G. Charbonnel (Universit6 d'Aix-Marseille, France), will be achieved through some progress in an emerging "office science", and improvement of practices in the field of organizational development. A multistepped methodology conceived as a set of instruments and procedures has been devised. In their

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presentation, entitled "Towards a Methodology for Office Analysis", the authors described the broad lines of the methodology, the first results and future orientations. HUFIT's Role D. Davies (Loughborough University of Technology, U.K.) described the HUFIT Project (No. 385), a large program of ergonomics and human factors work, which develops a variety of design tools and training mechanisms and exemplar interfaces to assist the European IT industry in user centered application driver design of world competitive products. The HUFIT Project was conceived as a strategic contribution to the European IT industry's activities to combat the American and Japanese challenge. Davies explained that this contribution was made to enable the European IT industry to develop products which would more precisely meet the requirements of end users and provide unparalleled benefits. The presentation was entitled "HUFIT's Role in Office Systems Design". Cognitive Complexity In the HUFIT project, cognitive complexity theory is evaluated by applying it to the analysis of usability of different forms of human-computer interaction, especially by use of direct manipulation. An experiment was conducted by J.E. Ziegler, P.H. Vossen, and H.O. Hoppe (IAO, F.R.G.), in which four groups of novice users had to learn in succession four simple editing tasks. The groups differed with respect to the sequence in which the distinct tasks were presented. The results on learning and transfer were in agreement with production rules: the task complexity correlated well with the observed learning times. Ziegler, Vossen and Hoppe discussed a number of research issues in an attempt to highlight the conditions, imphcations and limitations of cognitive complexity theory for research on human-computer interaction. OIS Development The goal of Project No. 813 "Automatic Tools for Designing Office Systems" (TODOS) within the Office Systems area of ESPRIT is that of making Office Information Systems development easier, quicker and more reliable by providing a set of design tools to analysts, designers and users.

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Techniques for collecting design data, rapid prototyping, and choosing system architecture were studied in the project. B. Pernici (CSISEI-CNR, Politecnico di Milano, Italy) and W. Vogel (Dornier GmbH, F.R.G.) presented the project, started in January 1986, and discussed its first results. Their presentation was entitled "An Integrated Approach to OIS Development". AIIP/OS/II: Vision

External Interfaces/Speech and

user, an artificial vision scientist, may conceive and carry out experiments with sets of image data, including time sequences of stereo image pairs, for investigating strategies of integration of perceptual data. The software tool, originally developed in the context of a specific task that deals with early processing of visual information, is now being expanded in the direction of three-dimensional integration, cognitive computation and also cursive script analysis.

Word Hypothesization

A I P / C I M / I E S : Advanced Control Systems

The problem of lexical access to large vocabularies by means of a coarse and approximate phonetic description of words was addressed in a presentation prepared by G. Micca, R. Pieraccini (CSELT, Italy), P. Laface (CENS, Italy), L. Saitta (Universith di Torino, Italy) and A. Kaltenmeier (AEG Research Institute, F.R.G.). An efficient technique was presented, based on robust phonetic segmentation of the input utterance and on a generalization of the classical Dynamic Programming algorithm for fast matching between lattice and tree structured symbol strings. After extracting a small subset of candidate words from a given lexicon, refined stochastic models of phonetic units are activated in order to assign a maximum likelihood score to each word of the subset. An isolated-word prototype system has been implemented on a VAX11/780 computer; results of test-bed experiments with a speakerdependent 1011 lexical access task were reported, and future developments and possible exploitations were suggested.

Material Handling Systems

Perceptual Data

ESPRIT Project No. 419 is concerned with the elucidation of the computational base inherent in perceiving general 3-D scenes and in perceptualmotor skills associated with cursive script understanding. G. Sandini (University of Genoa) and D. Vernon (Trinity College, Ireland) focussed in their presentation on a specific result of their research, a software tool - VIS (Virtual Image System) - which allows the use of multiple representations of image data. This tool is conceived for a highly interactive environment in which the

J. Grotrian and G. Seliger outlined the goals and interim results of R & D efforts for the specification of a Knowledge and Decision Support System (KDSS). This system is expected to support planning engineers in the design and operation of material handling systems (MHS). Based on the case study of a factory design, the applied principles of system design were described by Grotrian and Seliger. Some promising results achieved in an Integrated Cost and Performance Simulation approach were reported. Moreover, the efforts of knowledge acquisition for an expert system in the field of MHS design were described. The presentation was entitled "Knowledge and Decision Support for Material Handling Systems". DILA J.E. Thomsen and K. Thomsen (SYSWARE, Denmark) provided a description of DILA, a non-sequential programming language to describe process monitoring and manual process control. DILA, they explained, is designed to support the writing of applications which (1) communicate with a given set of sensors to obtain status information about processes, on a request basis, event basis or timer basis, (2) transform the process data into more comprehensive data formats, (3) present the transformed process data to the operator in an attractive way to ease the process monitoring, and (4) define dialogues specifying the operator interactions and their resulting actions by information presented to the operator and by process control.

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Computer Integrated Manufacture II: Real-Time Control for Manufacturing Control Systems ESPRIT Project No. 477, entitled "Control Systems for Integrated Manufacturing", involves COMAU SpA as prime contractor, Renault Automation and Digital Equipment Corporation as partners, and Politecnico di Torino and University College Galway as subcontractors. Work started on this project in February 1985. J. McCahill described the progress achieved to date towards the ultimate goal of the project which is to develop an Application Generator for Production Activity Control. McCahill's presentation was appropriately entitled "Towards an Application Generator for Production Activity Control in a Computer Integrated Manufacturing Environment". Expert Knowledge A net-based tool which permits the application of expert knowledge to a real time process control system was introduced by P. Knackfuss and G. Giinssmantel (GRS mbH, F.R.G.). The main advantages of the tool, according to the authors, are integral consideration of process chronology, fast response times, and easy use by non-specialist engineers. The software is used within ESPRIT project No. 504 "Plant Availability, Quality and Safety Optimization". The project, Knackfuss and Giinssmantel explained, is tackling the problem of fault conditions in manufacturing systems by working to produce methodologies of plant monitoting, diagnosis and action planning along with the integration of these into plant control to give fault tolerant operation. Software Technology llh Software Metrics and Management Information Structures M. Georges (SESA, France) presented the modelling mechanisms on which the information system of SPMMS (ESPRIT Project No. 282) is based. These mechanisms, Georges pointed out, take inspiration from the object-oriented approach, enhanced with rich semantic interpretation and control of the information. The system is

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highly customizable and supports dynamic modification. Georges" presentation was entitled "Information Structures for Managing Software Production". Software Quality P. G. Petersen (Elektronikcentralen, Denmark) outlined the work on software quality measurement, modelling and prediction in Subproject 1 of the ESPRIT project REQUEST (No. 300). The aim of the subproject is to provide models and tools to assist a software development manager in obtaining specified qualities. Assistance will be provided in planning the development project, in monitoring and steering the development process, and in estimating the final product qualities. "Software Quality: The COstructive QUAlity MOdelling System" was the title of Petersen's presentation. Software Diversity The REQUEST project (No. 300) investigates the reliability and quality of software by control of the development process. Modelling and measurement of quality and reliability parameters during the life cycle phases is a prerequisite for this task, according to F. Saglietti and W. Ehrenberger (GRS mbH, F.R.G.). One of the subtasks consists of the quantitative reliability assessment of software within safety-critical systems, used for example in the avionic or nuclear industry. In their lecture Saglietti and Ehrenberger presented an approach of validating a two-fold diverse software system by back-to-back testing. Back-to-back testing, they noted, simply performs a comparison of the results of the two diverse versions of software determining their agreement or disagreement. The assumption on which the method suggested is based is verified by two experimental approaches and confirmed by theoretical considerations. The full technical Proceedings of this conference have been edited by Directorate General XIII, Telecommunications, Information, Industries & Innovation and published by North-Holland under the title "'ESPRIT "86: Results and Achievements" 1986. 970 pages. ISBN 0-444-70160-5. Price: US$89.00 / DFI. 20O.O0. The plenary presentations are also available on videotape from NCC, Oxford Road, Manchester, UK (teleph.: + 44 61 228 6333).