20. 12. 85 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 332/1 
II 
(Preparatory Acts) 
COMMISSION 
Draft Council Decision adopting the 1986 work programme for the European strategic 
programme for research and development in information technologies: ESPRIT 
COM(85) 602 
(85/C 332/01) 
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, 
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European 
Economic Community, 
Having regard to Council Decision 84/130/EEC of 
28 February 1984 concerning a European programme 
for research and development in information techno­
logies (ESPRIT) ('), and in particular Article 3 (2) 
thereof, 
Having regard to the draft work programme submitted 
by the Commission, 
Whereas the Committee referred to in Article 4 of Deci­
sion 84/130/EEC has been consulted; 
Whereas the projects identified fall within the areas 
described in the Technical Annex to the Decision 
adopting the ESPRIT programme; 
Whereas the actual needs regarding the Community's 
contribution to new projects falling below the threshold referred to in the third indent of Article 6 (2) of Deci­
sion 84/130/EEC have been carefully analysed with 
the result that a certain range of flexibility is required, 
HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: 
Article 1 
The ESPRIT work programme set out in the Annex 
hereto is hereby adopted for 1986. 
Article 2 
As a target figure, 25 % of the Community's total con­
tribution to new projects may be allocated to new pro­
jects which fall below the threshold referred to in the 
third indent of Article 6 (2) of Decision 84/130/ECC. 
Article 3 
This Decision shall enter into force on.... 
(') OJ No L 67, 9. 3. 1984, p. 54. 
No C 332/2 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 12. 85 
ANNEX 
ESPRIT 1986 WORKPROGRAMME 
CONTENTS 
0. INTRODUCTION 3 
1. SUBPROGRAMME 1: ADVANCED MICROELECTRONICS 8 
R&D AREAS 1.1. Submicron MOS 9 
1.2. Submicron Bipolar 10 
1.3. Computer Aided Design (CAD) 12 
1.4. Compound Semiconductor Integrated Circuits 15 
1.5. Optoelectronics 17 
1.6. Advanced Display Technologies 19 
1.7. General Supporting Topics 19 
2. SUBPROGRAMME 2: SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY 23 
R&D AREAS 2.1. Theories, Methods and Tools 23 
2.2. Management and Industrial Aspects 28 
2.3. Common Environment 29 
2.4. Evaluation and Demonstration Projects 31 
3. SUBPROGRAMME 3: ADVANCED INFORMATION PROCESSING 32 
R&D AREAS 3.1. Knowledge Engineering 32 
3.2. Advanced Signal Processing, including Man-Machine Interfaces 35 
3.3. Information and Knowledge Storage 38 
3.4. Computer Architectures 39 
3.5. Design and Systems Aspects 41 
3.6. Focussing Projects 42 
4. SUBPROGRAMME 4: OFFICE SYSTEMS 42 
R&D AREAS 4.1. Office System Science and Human Factors 44 
4.2. Advanced Workstations and Human-Machine Interfaces . 46 
4.3. Communication Systems 51 
4.4. Advanced Multi-Media Storage and Retrieval Systems 53 
4.5. Integrated Office Information Systems 55 
5. SUBPROGRAMME 5: COMPUTER INTEGRATED MANUFACTURE 56 
R&D AREAS 5.1. Integrated Systems Architectures 56 
5.2. Computer Aided Design & Engineering (CAD/CAE) 57 
5.3. Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) 59 
5.4. Flexible Manufacturing Systems 60 
5.5. Subsystems and Components 62 
5.6. CIM Systems Applications 63 
20. 12.85 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 332/3 
INTRODUCTION 
This section is an integral part of the ESPRIT 1986 Workprogramme and is necessary for its 
proper interpretation. 
0.1. BACKGROUND 
The European Economic Community has 
launched the European Strategic Programme of 
Research and Development in Information Tech­
nology (ESPRIT). The ESPRIT Programme is 
intended to promote precompetitive and generic 
research and development in information technol­
ogy through collaborative projects within the 
European Community which the Community shall 
finance in part. A management plan, the annual 
workprogramme, has been established within 
ESPRIT to enhance the control and accountability 
of the programme. Updated by the Commission in 
consultation with the ESPRIT Management Com­
mittee, each year, the document is submitted to the 
Council for approval. 
This is the third such workprogramme and it cov­
ers the period 1986-1990. to relate ESPRIT to technological 
grammes outside the Community. pro-
0.3. LAYOUT 
After the introductory section, the document is set 
out in five main sections corresponding to the 
major technical subprogrammes of ESPRIT. 
The partitioning of ESPRIT R&D into five sub-
programmes is largely dictated by the need to be 
able to manage the task for the Community. In 
practice, the technical subprogrammes are interre­
lated and the Workprogramme indicates the signi­
ficant interdependencies that exist. 
Each subprogramme is split into a number of 
R&D areas and these are further subdivided into 
R&D topics and projects. 
0.2. PURPOSE 
The purposes of the ESPRIT 1986 Workpro­
gramme are: 
— to serve as a guideline to potential proposers 
by indicating the intended scope of the total 
ESPRIT workprogramme; 
to describe project areas and their interrela­
tionships, and include descriptions of current 
work commenced as a result of Calls for Pro­
posals in 1984 and 1985; Each R&D topic is discussed in detail, indicating 
the anticipated continuation of work from pre­
vious years (in this case 1983 and 1984), and the 
work anticipated to start in 1985. 
0.4. THE ESPRIT APPROACH 
The approach of ESPRIT is to create the technol­
ogical basis which enables the Community to seize 
the opportunities associated with new information 
technology (IT), to foster cooperation and to pave 
the way to standards of European origin. 
to provide a framework for assessment and 
review of projects under way, in order to 
appraise their progress individually and in 
relationship with each other; 
to act as a reference document for considera­
tions relating to coordinating activities under 
ESPRIT and under other Community and 
national programmes, and to serve as a basis ESPRIT is the Community programme which is 
specifically designed for R & D where collabora­
tion at the Community level is purposeful and 
which is pre-competitive. Collaboration is in order 
to achieve critical mass efforts, or to bring together 
the necessary expertise otherwise scattered in the 
Community, or to create the potential to enlarge 
markets. In addition by providing the framework 
for concurrent technical approaches ESPRIT 
involves collaboration between companies and 
between companies and universities. 
No C 332/4 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 12. 85 
ESPRIT's precompetition requirement is for areas 
where market opportunities can be seized within 
5-10 years, and in doing so ESPRIT stands 
between basic research, and applied industrial 
research and development work. The former is hot 
normally determined by industrial priorities and 
the latter responds to specific short term needs. 
In the selection and definition of IT areas that 
ESPRIT should address, two considerations have 
been important: 
(i) to have sufficient command of basic 
technologies; 
(ii) to have systems capabilities which are adapt­
able to changing market needs thereby per­
mitting the knowledge of markets to have 
further influence on technology development. 
Five areas or subprogrammes are of strategic 
importance to the Community. 
SUBPROGRAMME I — ADVANCED 
MICROELECTRONICS 
Advanced Microelectronics in the context of this 
subprogramme encompasses all research and 
development aspects concerning the provision of 
the physical elements for the acquisition, process­
ing, storage, transmission and display of data 
required by modern informatics products. It is 
thus the hardware foundation of the information 
technology industry. 
This subprogramme concentrates on the priority 
areas needed to ensure that Europe maintains a 
competitive position regarding the supply of these 
essential ingredients for her IT manufacturing 
industry with the required capability, in sufficient 
quantity and at competitive prices. 
SUBPROGRAMME 2 — SOFTWARE 
TECHNOLOGY 
The Software Technology subprogramme aims at 
making available, at Community level, efficient 
and cost-effective methods for the industrial prod­
uction of high-quality software, and is intended to 
lead to more rapid introduction of new products 
and a reduction of life-cycle costs in software. 
Work in the subprogramme addresses theories, 
methods and tools to put software production on a 
sound engineering basis, project management and industrial aspects to put these into the business 
and industrial context, a common integrated soft­
ware engineering environment and the demon­
stration of the effectiveness of new software prod­
uction methods. 
SUBPROGRAMME 3 — ADVANCED 
INFORMATION PROCESSING 
This subprogramme is seeking means for improv­
ing the performance and efficiency of computing 
systems by making use of advances in four key 
areas, namely, knowledge engineering, including 
the development of knowledge acquisition, repre­
sentation and manipulation techniques; external 
interfaces, dealing with the recognition, under­
standing and synthesis of signals; information and 
knowledge storage, these advances are the develop­
ments in data and knowledge bases as well as the 
techniques of access to these bases, and deals with 
architectural characteristics and physical proper­
ties of advanced storage devices; computer archi­
tecture, i.e. the development of new computer 
architectures and their associated programming 
environments where particular emphasis will be 
placed on the use of concurrency. 
SUBPROGRAMME 4 — OFFICE SYSTEMS 
The challenges facing office systems development 
include understanding and supporting the tasks of 
office workers and not simply providing a technol­
ogical update of traditional office functions, 
achieving improvements in man-system interfaces 
that allow productive use of office systems by a 
wide range of office workers, and the development 
of system oriented approaches to office problems. 
The subprogramme has been divided into five 
areas: 
Office system science and human factors 
Advanced workstations 
Communication systems 
Advanced filing and retrieval systems 
Integrated office systems. 
SUBPROGRAMME 5 — COMPUTER 
INTEGRATED MANUFACTURE 
The two main objectives of the CIM subpro­
gramme are: one, the creation, in the Community, 
20. 12. 85 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 332/5 
of an environment in which multi-vendor auto­
mated manufacturing systems can be implemented 
with the resulting integrated system having mini­
mum functional overlaps and maximum connec­
tivity, and two, to support individual work on 
selected subsystems, interfaces and tools whose 
development or refinement is seen to be of stra­
tegic value to Community industry, and whose 
design aims are consistent with the general archi­
tecture of the environment. 
Work in the subprogramme relates to the total 
requirements of manufacturing activities, from the 
planning and design stage to real-time control of 
production. It then includes computer-aided 
design (CAD), computer-aided engineering 
(CAE), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), 
flexible machining and assembly systems, 
robotics, testing and quality control. 
0.5. PROGRAMME EXECUTION AND 
INFRASTRUCTURE 
The Commission manages and monitors the exe­
cution of the programme. 
It also is responsible for the infrastructure needed 
for programme execution. Part of this infrastruc­
ture is the information exchange system (IES). 
Another part is the dissemination of results and 
reports and the acquisition of information. A third 
part is concerned with the interrelationship 
between the R&D work and standardization 
activities. 
The ESPRIT Information Exchange System (IES) 
serves as a management tool. The IES is an 
IT-based data communications system for the 
exchange of information between separated parti­
cipants in ESPRIT projects, their own manage­
ments and policy making bodies, and the Com­
munity and national administrations involved in 
programme or project management. 
In the IES area there are development projects for 
instance developing OSI conformant software for 
the interconnection of computing systems and 
development facilities, service projects providing 
e.g. computer based mail and conferencing facili­
ties, and support projects studying key issues such 
as security. 
A number of the research and development pro­
jects in ESPRIT will lay the scientific and tech­
nical foundations on which standardization activi­
ties will be based later. Conversely, some demon­
strations of the interworking of standards may 
require additional work; this work will be consid­
ered as part of the infrastructure. The work towards standardisation will be guided by the gen­
eral IT standardisation policy established and not 
duplicate any of the existing organisations or 
actions. 
The dissemination of results of and information 
acquisition for ESPRIT is an important element of 
ESPRIT. Its goals are the quick application of 
research results from ESPRIT in Community 
industry and to provide the best basis for the plan­
ning and management of the programme, and for 
project participants. For this purpose; both 
classical mechanisms like publications; workshops 
or conferences and newer communication meth­
ods through electronic means, for instance the 
IES, are used. 
0.6. TELECOMMUNICATIONS 
When the ESPRIT plans were originally drawn up, 
it was recognised that telecommunications formed 
an important part of information technology. 
However, the subject was not included at that 
time. 
In September 1983, the Commission prepared a 
communication to Council, demonstrating the 
increasing economic importance of telecommuni­
cations for the economic development of the-
Community, and proposing six action lines in this 
field. 
The second line of action calls for cooperative R & 
D and worksharing at the pre-competitive stage. 
In 1984, the Commission initiated a Planning 
Exercise in Telecommunications (PET) in con­
junction with major European companies and the 
national PTT laboratories. The aim was to assess 
the advantages that might stem from a Community 
approach for identifying the technological 
development needs which have to be satisfied to 
make available in the Community the capacity of 
establishing integrated broadband communication 
(IBC) in 1995 and onwards. 
As a result of this planning exercise, the Commis­
sion has submitted to the Council a proposal in 
two parts: 
— Definition of an IBC reference model, which 
will be used to identify precisely the sub­
sequent action of an envisaged R&D pro­
gramme in Telecommunications, aiming at 
enabling the realization of the IBC; 
— A set of technology assessment activities, 
primarily to support the development of the 
reference model. 
The Council has approved this proposal in July 
1985 and the Definition Phase of a programme for 
\ 
No C 332/6 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 12.85 
'Research in Advanced Communications in 
Europe (RACE)' is now in the launching phase 
and will draw on the results of the relevant 
ESPRIT projects; proper coordination between 
the two programmes will be assured. 
0.7. TYPES OF PROJECT sals was published in September 1985 to improve 
the coverage of the workprogramme. 
For participation in the IES development and ser­
vices, a call for proposals was published on 
14 July 1984 and has produced 25 responses which 
have been evaluated, and several contracts were 
let. 
In the ESPRIT 1986 Workprogramme, a distinc­
tion is drawn between Type A and Type B pro­
jects. 
These are defined as follows: 
Type A Projects are projects that are described in 
the workprogramme, with specified objectives. 
They usually require large resources, both human 
and financial, and considerable infrastructure with 
clear and constant perspectives. 
Type B projects are covered by 'research themes' 
which are indicative but do not form an exhaus­
tive listing. They usually require smaller resources 
but nevertheless are as amenable to milestone 
management and review cycles as the larger pro­
jects. 
0.8. CURRENT STATE OF THE PROGRAMME 
This workprogramme describes work in progress 
as a result of the 1984 call for proposals or about 
to start as a result of the 1985 call for proposals. 
The steps leading to this work were as follows: 
An advance notice for participation in the main 
ESPRIT Programme was published on 30 Decem­
ber 1983. The Council of Ministers approved the 
programme for an initial period of five years on 
28 February, 1984. The 1984 Workprogramme was 
published in the Official Journal of the European 
Communities. 
A first call for proposals for the main programme 
was issued on 21 March 1984. Nearly 450 propo­
sals were received in response and were evaluated 
during May and June 1984. A shortlist was 
selected in July 1984 for detailed negotiations and 
final approval. In addition, much of the work car­
ried out under the earlier Pilot Phase was 
combined with the main programme. 
A second call for proposals led to a similar sequ­
ence of events in 1985, with 400 responses being 
received, evaluated and a shortlist for negotiations 
agreed in July 85. To strengthen the Software 
Technology effort, a supplementary call for propo-0.9. WORKPROGRAMME COVERAGE AND 
INTERPRETATION 
The 1986 Workprogramme covers the period 
1986-1990. This is sufficiently long to cover the 
duration of the longer projects. However, informa­
tion technology is rapidly evolving and therefore 
the R&D objectives may well have to be modified 
in the course of yearly revisions. 
In the 1986 Workprogramme, less detail is 
included on intermediate objectives compared 
with 1985, since many of them are embedded in 
the ongoing projects. 
Such intermediate objectives were given in pre­
vious versions of the workprogramme to provide 
the framework and reference for evaluation, pro­
per management, and further refinements. They 
were an estimate of how the overall objectives of 
the project may be achieved and they were indica­
tors and checks against which concrete proposals 
for projects were examined. Intermediate 
objectives shall, however, not be regarded as 
legally mandatory in the sense that proposals hav­
ing perfectly acceptable end objectives should not 
have to be rejected only because they may have 
been designed to rest on different intermediate 
objectives than the ones proposed here. 
Within each of the separate subject areas of 
ESPRIT there exist programmes of work which 
may depend on skills, techniques or technologies 
which are being developed within one or more of 
the other subject areas. 
To aid the presentation, the descriptions of current 
work are typographically distinguished in bold 
face. These descriptions are located under the 
most appropriate heading, but it should be realized 
that in some cases projects formulated in response 
to previous workprogrammes overlap the subject 
boundaries currently used. 
In the 1986 Workprogramme, project descriptions 
for proposals received in 1983/84 have been 
updated compared with the description in work-
programme 1985. The updates cover changes 
between proposals for work and finally negotiated 
contracts. Also, results of on-going work are 
reported where appropriate. 
20. 12. 85 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 332/7 
or for work allocated to projects that have termi­
nated prematurely, provided the topic continues to 
have priority for the attainment of the ESPRIT 
goals. It is intended that the projects retained after 
these calls should strengthen particularly the coh­
erence of the work in ESPRIT and bring it closer 
to reaching the strategic objectives. 
Such call(s) will be focussed and involve smaller 
resources than the larger calls for proposals made 
in previous years. Only a selection of the areas 
mentioned in this workprogramme as potentially 
suitable will be included in such calls. 
Intending proposers should therefore await the 
publication of the more detailed call(s). They will 
specify the necessary information. 
0.10. RESOURCES BREAKDOWN 
The breakdown of the overall ESPRIT resources between the subprogrammes is subject 
to modification in the light of further technological evolution in the world. In parti­
cular, in the light of the industry response to calls for proposals, it must be possible to 
transfer resources between the various subprogrammes — after all the partitioning of 
ESPRIT into five areas is a management convenience and is not intrinsic to the nature 
of the work. 
The resulting approximate distribution of Community contribution to the five technical 
areas (in MECU) allocated so far for support of projects assuming that they run to their 
planned completion, is as follows: 
Subprogramme 
1. Microelectronics 
2. Software technology 
3. AIP 
41 Office system 
5. CIM 
Total Year of call for proposals 
1983/84 
85.5 
72.9 
89.8 
82.6 
45.2 
376.0 1985 
76.5 
56.6 
65.0 
54.6 
41.2 
293.9 Total 
162.0 
129.5 
154.8 
137.2 
86.4 
669.9 Percentage of 
total 
24.2 
19.3 
23.0 
20.5 
13.0 
100.0 
These allocations show some changes compared to the previous periods due to earlier 
work being resubmitted subsequently in modified form under a later year's call. 
They have the status of planning figures and are derived on the basis of the actual set of 
projects currently under way or under negotiation. They will need to be updated as 
changes are reported in the project and contract status of the technical areas. However 
the intention is to maintain the approximate distribution between the five areas. The best information on the 1985 projects avail­
able at the time of writing (October 1985) has been 
incorporated in the 1986 Workprogramme. How­
ever, it should be noted that at the time this work-
programme was drafted the Commission had not 
yet concluded final negotations on all this work 
and some modifications may prove necessary in 
some cases. 
The 1986 workprogramme, shows that, while the 
technical areas selected for the first phase of 
ESPRIT have been covered to a significant extent, 
some important areas still remain. They are identi­
fied in the workprogramme, chapter by chapter, 
under the subheading 'Scope for further work'. 
Call(s) for proposals to be published in 1986 will 
be either for a selection of work still not covered, 
No C 332/8 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 12. 85 
Notes : 
(1) The figures for 1983/1984 combine the contributions to 1983 Pilot Projects and to 
projects started as a result of the first call for proposals on the main programme in 
1984. 
(2) The figures for 1985 are target figures and may need adjustment in the light of final 
contract negotiations. 
(3) The Software Technology figure for 1985 includes an allowance to cover the sup­
plementary call for proposals. 
(4) The figures exclude any expenditure on management and infrastructure. 
SUBPROGRAMME1: 
ADVANCED MICROELECTRONICS 
1.0. Introduction 
Advanced Microelectronics in the context of this sub-
programme, encompasses all research and development 
aspects concerning the provision of the physical ele­
ments for the acquisition, processing, storage, transmis­
sion and display of data required by modern informat­
ics products; it is thus the hardware foundation of the 
Information Technology industry. 
This subprogramme concentrates on the priority areas 
needed to ensure that Europe maintains a competitive 
position regarding the supply of these essential ingre­
dients for her IT manufacturing industry with the 
required capability, in sufficient quantity and at com­
petitive prices. 
Overview of the subprogramme areas design complexity effectively is the main goal of Com­
puter Aided Design (CAD) of VLSI Systems, the sub­
ject of area 1.3. Five new A projects are currently under 
negotiation in this area. 
Area 1.5 is concerned with the possibilities afforded by 
optoelectronics devices especially in the data transmis­
sion field. The ongoing A project in this area will be 
updated and improved by new concepts as a result of 2 
proposals in the 1985 call. A new B project is also cur­
rently under negotiation. 
Advanced display technologies is the subject of area 
1.6. This offers the possibility of replacing the ubiqui­
tous CRT, as the main vehicle for large scale display, 
by more compact solid state based counterparts. One 
new B project is currently under negotiation. 
The major thrust of the research and development pro­
grammes within Microelectronics is to push the silicon 
based technologies of MOS and Bipolar towards their 
limits of capabilities (areas 1.1 and 1.2) whilst pursuing 
the possibilities afforded by the compound semicon­
ductor materials, such as Gallium Arsenide (area 1.4), 
which have potential capabilities in key areas beyond 
those possible using silicon. In areas 1.1 and 1.2, four 
new B projects are under negotiation, two in each area. 
In area 1.4, one new A project and two new B projects 
are under negotiation. 
Apart from a capability to produce high function count 
chips, it is also necessary to deal with the problems 
posed by the complexity of their design. Managing this Areas 1.8 and 1.9 of the previous (85) workplan have 
been subsumed into a new area 1.7. Here research 
themes are brought together which are more innovative 
or longer term than those contained in the topic areas 1 
to 6 as well as critical areas of technology and tech­
niques with a common trunk. Topics here include 
packaging, device modelling and special processing 
materials and techniques. 
Computer control of manufacturing VLSI is also 
needed to support the technology programmes. Here 
reduction in feature size and layer thickness places 
increasing demands on process control where the final 
20. 12. 85 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 332/9 
device parameters are dependent on a large number of 
variables! The minimization of human handling and an 
attack on the sources of yield limiting contamination 
are critical in this situation. For a given level of con­
tamination, yield falls rapidly as feature size is reduced. 
These problems could be addressed by appropriate 
type B projects in this area. 
The above is also an example of where cross-subpro-
gramme cooperation could be of great value. Coopera­
tion with CIM projects addressing similar problems 
should be encouraged. 
7 new projects are currently being negotiated in area 
1.7. 
R&D area 1.1: Submicron MOS 
The requirement is to develop all the individual process 
steps to achieve submicron feature size in MOS (such 
as lithography, etching and doping). The target is a pro­
cess capable of making several million components of 
logic and memory per chip. It is envisaged that below 
about 0,7 Jim tools other than optical lithography will 
be used. Process and device modelling will be 
included. To achieve these goals the critical techniques 
common to R&D areas 1.1 and 1.2 need to be devel­
oped (see area 1.7). 
1.1.1. Objectives: 
The main objectives of the broad 5-year programme 
are: 
— at 18 months: design and evaluation of test vehicle 
of more than 1 000 transistors based on 1 (im 
design rules with a pitch (metal plus spacing) of 3 
u.m. 
— at 3 years: first samples of demonstration circuit 
with 0,5 million transistors, 1 u>m design rules, with 
data on figure of merit and delay time. 
— at 4 years: statistical data on homogeneity on a 
slice and yield for 1 u,m design rules; and test 
vehicle with more than 1 000 transistors with 0,7 
u,m design rules and a pitch of 2 u.m. 
— at 5 years: first samples of circuits with more than 1 
000 000 transistors, 0,7 u,m design rules, with data 
on figure of merit and delay time. 1.1.2. Current projects and projects under negotiation 
'SOI Materials and Processing towards 3D Integration' 
Proj. Ref. 245: A/84 
The aim of this cooperative research is to study and 
develop new silicon technologies necessary for three 
dimensional integration. This 3D approach will offer the 
possibility of higher density integration, higher speed of 
operation and multifunctional signal processing. Three 
main technological steps will be explored: 
a) the growth of SOI active layers having electronic 
properties needed for the realization of high quality 
devices and circuits 
b) the stacking of two active levels in a way that avoids 
any degradation of already built devices 
c) the single level SOI processing for the fabrication of 
individual components and for their connection; the 
development of a complete process incorporating two 
active layers. 
'Submicron CMOS Technology' 
Proj. Ref. 554: A/84 
The project aims at developing the necessary building 
blocks for a 0.5 /im CMOS process, primarily dedicated 
to the production of high speed digital circuits. In order 
to allow the programme to proceed with the best chances 
of success, two main phases have been identified and 
organised: the first refers to an intermediate step at the 
1.0 {im level; the second to the final 0.5 /am CMOS 
family. At the end of the project, the IC companies of the 
consortium will have, in their pilot lines, the building 
blocks of a CMOS process capable of realising IC's with 
0.5 /um features. 
Two workpackages of Project 554 above are likely to be 
expanded by the addition of the following two projects: 
'Submicron Contact Technology and Reliability' 
Proj. Ref. 810 : B/85 
The work aims at developing suitable contact technolo­
gies compatible with CMOS and bipolar circuit fabrica­
tion with one micron or submicron design rules. 
No C 332/10 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 12.85 
The contact properties are being investigated and life 
tests under various stresses, using extensive failure ana­
lysis, are being carried out, to assess quantitatively, the 
contact performance and reliability. 
'Refractory Metal Gate Transistor' 
Proj.Refll25:B/85 
The work deals with the use of tungsten as gate material: 
sputtering or chemical vapour deposition will be investi­
gated and compared; different gates structures such as 
pure W, W on polysilicon or other pad layers will be 
studied. Emphasis will be put on W-oxide — Si devices 
characterization and reliability. However, process 
changes required for W usage will also be addressed and 
set up on a submicronic demonstrator circuit. 
'Physical-chemical Characterization of Silicon 
Oxynitrides in Relation to their Electronic Properties' 
Proj. Ref 369: B/84 
The aim of the project is firstly to establish the relation 
between the physico-chemical and the electrical properties 
of silicon oxynitride film and secondly the relation 
between the physico-chemical properties and the growth 
parameters. This research will be carried out in view of 
the likely applications of silicon oxynitrides in IC technol­
ogy, for instance in MNOS based non-volatile memories 
and in submicron MOS devices. 
'Substratesfor CMOS VLSI Technology' 
Proj. Ref. 509 : B/84 
Part 1: To set up an intrinsic gettering (IG) process for 
wafers with medium high oxygen concentration. The pro­
cess should be independent of the type, p or n, of the sub­
strate and should be able to produce: 
— a highly defective bulk region 
— a defect-free denuded zone 
A thickness of this zone around 1-10 um is identified as 
an optimum compromise for several factors (leakage cur­
rent, insensitivity to latch up and soft error). 
Part 2: To characterise epi wafers with diameter 4 and 6 
inches. The thickness of the epilayer should be in the 
range 5-10 um, both for p-h and n+ substrates. This 
thickness range is suitable for submicron CMOS. Finally, IG and epi process should eventually match to have 
intrinsically-gettered, low leakage epiwafers for 
submicron CMOS devices insensitive to soft errors. 
1.1.3. Scope for further work 
This area is well covered by projects retained and is 
unlikely to be considered for inclusion in call(s) for 
proposals to be published in 1986. 
R&D Area 1.2: Submicron bipolar 
The overall objective is to develop specific bipolar sub­
micron process steps, leading to a complete processing 
sequence for very high performance ICs. 
To realize this objective the following developments 
are included in the project area: 
— overall circuit concepts which must evolve together 
with the technology; 
— a vertical device structure appropriate to submicron 
lithography; 
— a convenient multilayer interconnection 
technology; 
— a suitable contact and multilayer interconnection 
technology; 
— appropriate high dissipation, high pin count, 
electrically matched leads, packages; 
— process and device modelling. 
Critical techniques needed to support areas 1.1 and 1.2 
are covered in area 1.7. 
1.2.1. Objectives: 
The main objectives of the programme over 5 years are: 
— at 1 year: initial process design; evaluation and 
choice of critical equipment. 
— at 2 years: establish final design rules at 1 um. 
— at 3 years: demonstrate 1 um 10/20K gates, 100 ps 
gate delay circuits. 
— at 4 years: establish final design rules for 0,7 um 
structures. 
— at 5 years: Availability of first samples of 20/50K 
gate circuits in 0,7 um process. 
20. 12. 85 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 332/11 
1.2.2. Current projects and projects under negotiation 
'Submicron Bipolar Technology — /' 
Proj.Ref. 243: A/84 
The overall objective of this programme is to develop spe­
cific bipolar submicron process steps leading to complete 
processing sequences for the manufacture of very high 
performance integrated circuits. A common test mask 
and common test procedures have already been defined 
and agreed between the partners in order to provide suit­
able environment and comparison basis for effective col­
laborative work. Two main milestones are defined in the 
programme of work : 
a) end of 1987, intermediate 1 um process; demonstra­
tion of a gate delay of about 10,0 pS at a complexity 
of 10 to 20K gates. 
b) end of 1989, submicron process; 
demonstration of a gate delay less than 100 pS at a 
complexity greater than 20K gates. 
Two workpackages of project No. 243 above are likely to 
be expanded by the following two projects: 
' Very High Performance Bipolar Structure' 
Proj. Ref 1018 : B/85 
The aim of the work is to develop and optimize processing 
schemes for a sidewall base contact structure as a com­
plement to the submicron bipolar structures developed in 
'Submicron bipolar Technology — /'. 
High Performance Polymers for Multilayer Interconnec­
tion Insulation' 
Proj. Ref. 1025: B 85 
The work concerns the research and development of high 
performance polymers for intermetallic insulation layer 
with or without photocrosslinking potentiality. These high 
performance polymers would be polyimide based resins 
and would exhibit 
a) High thermal and chemical resistance; 
b) High mechanical and dielectric properties together 
with suitable etching resistance. 
'Submicron Bipolar Technology — //' 
Proj. Ref. 281: A/84 
The project focusses on the development of a bipolar tech­
nology for high speed data and signal processing prod­
ucts. This technology will allow the realization of delay times of less than 100 ps and the integration of 50 K gates 
in an area of about 100 mm2. Therefore it is necessary to 
reduce the structure dimensions to less than 1 /j,m to 
develop a suitable transistor structure and a multilayer 
metallization up to five layers. The feasibility oflC's with 
the indicated integration level by means of this process 
will be demonstrated at the end of the project by an ade­
quate test vehicle (demonstration chip). 
Previously the state of technology development will be 
demonstrated at appropriate stages by 2 more demon­
stration chips. The first demonstration chip will be a 
ECL-Gate Array with about 1 OK gates. It is character­
ized by the following features: 
A self aligning emitter-base structure with poly-Si-emitter 
and -base will be used for the transistor. Performance 
advantages result from a reduction of the transistor area 
due to self aligning processing, from poly Si-emitter and 
from lower base resistance. Typical delay and speed 
power product is 200 ps and 0,7 pj, respectively. Three 
layers of metallization are provided for wiring and power 
distribution using an organic/inorganic sandwich for the 
isolation layer. The metal pitch will be 6 um in the first 
layer (without vias). The chip area will be about 150 mm2 
and the power consumption will be typically 23 W. The 
planned packaging is based on a TAB process with a cap-
ton film in the standard 35 mm size. 
At the time being, most of the activities carried out within 
the scope of the project concentrate on process develop­
ment for realizing the first demonstration chip. An exact 
definition of the second demonstration chip will be 
provided at the end of the second year of development 
work. 
'A High Performance CMOS Bipolar Process for VLSI 
Circuits' 
Proj. Ref. 412: A/84 
This project aims at the development of a VLSI technol­
ogy which combines, on a single chip, MOS circuitry of 
the highest density presently obtainable, with bipolar 
circuitry of similar density, but better suited to specific 
tasks, in particular, the interfacing with external equip­
ment. In the project the main effort will fall on the tech­
nological side: development of methods which allow both 
bipolar and MOS transistors to be made in compatible 
process steps, and this down to dimensions comparable to 
those presently obtained in MOS-only technology. In 
parallel with this technological work design methods have 
to be developed for the specific type of circuitry envisaged, 
along with a study to determine, for various types of 
application, the most appropriate division of subsystems 
between the two circuit technologies. 
No C 332/12 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 12. 85 
1.2.3. Scope for further work 
This area is well covered by projects retained and is 
unlikely to be considered for inclusion in call(s) for 
proposals to be published in 1986. 
R& Darea 1.3.:CAD 
1.3.1. Objectives 
The two primary objectives are: 
(a) to develop advanced CAD techniques to manage 
the ever increasing circuit complexities within 
microelectronics; 
(b) to provide a capability for complex VLSI design 
which is widely accessible to the EEC IT com­
munity. 
The overall aim is to develop within a common frame­
work an integrated set of portable tools capable of 
handling VLSI circuits containing up to several 
million components. This set of tools should: 
— provide a fast response, user friendly design facility 
that is readily adaptable to changes in technology; 
— allow designers to achieve a rapid turnaround of 
valid and testable designs and associated test infor­
mation ; 
— provide facilities for reliability and performance 
optimization of circuits; 
— include methodologies of cell-based design and 
libraries of adaptable building blocks; 
— assimilate relevant results of CAD projects under 
Regulation (EEC) 3744/81. 
Strategy 
(a) A positive attempt should be made to encourage 
the emergence of an overall CAD infrastructure 
such that the majority of tools developed under 
existing programmes together with future tools can 
be combined to provide an integrated widely acces­
sible tool capability. 
(b) As far as possible, complex demonstrator chips will 
be used as a focus for each stage of the programme. 
(c) Device and process modelling is not considered as 
part of the CAD projects but is included in the pro­jects concerned with the development of new VLSI 
processes (see areas 1.1,1.2 and 1.7); however com­
patibility with CAD is required. 
(d) Care should be taken to promote cooperative 
development between universities, industrial 
groups and research institutions in order to transfer 
know-how and make CAD available to a broader 
community. 
(e) Care will be taken to interface with, support and 
employ the results of other ESPRIT activities. 
(f) the application of knowledge engineering tech­
niques to CAD should be emphasised. 
(g) dedicated CAD hardware should be incorporated 
where appropriate. 
(h) there is a vital need to incorporate the results of 
current European projects which are in most cases 
difficult to quantify. 
1.3.2. Current projects and projects under negotiation 
'High Level CAD for Inter-active Layout and Design' 
Proj.Ref. 10: A/83 
Following the completion of the pilot phase work has 
commenced on the main phase of the high level CAD pro­
ject. The main topics under investigation include high 
level design methodology based on Petri nets, hierarchic 
floorplanning with a high degree of automation, ana­
logue and general cell design, data modelling and data 
base management. 
An introductory manual on high level design has been 
issued and contains most of the partners, ideas on the 
application of Petri nets to the design of concurrent 
systems. This will be updated at periods of about six 
months. 
A review of placement algorithms has been made and 
proposals were made for the development of a hierarchic 
floorplanner. Automation will be provided by means of 
constructive placement and simulated annealing algo­
rithms. The activities on the task of cell building have 
achieved as a first result, a design system for computer-
aided nominal design of cells to be used within VLSI cir­
cuits. A new design method has been established for the 
task of designing integrated circuits at transistor level. 
Future work will concentrate more on the development of 
20. 12.85 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 332/13 
the appropriate software tools and their integration 
around a common data base. 
'Advanced Algorithms, Architecture and Layout Tech­
niques for VLSI Dedicated Signal Processing Chips' 
Proj. Ref. 97: A/83 
The main goal of this project is to develop CAD systems 
for designing custom integrated signal processing chips 
based on four different target architecture types 
(a) hardwired bit-serial, 
(b) hardwired bit-parallel, 
(c) systolic arrays and 
(d) customized bus-oriented multiprocessors. 
For each architecture type, industrial design experience is 
accumulated through the actual design of integrated 
circuits. From this experience a general methodology is 
derived, which specifies 
(J) how a given digital signal processing algorithm can 
be implemented with the target architecture, 
(2) how the architecture can be integrated in Silicon 
using a pre-defined circuit cell library. Once a design 
methodology has been defined, specifications are 
derived for CAD tools to perform various design 
tasks. The major effort is then invested to develop 
these tools and design the circuit cells. 
The CAD tool AMAI, proving the feasibility of the above 
approach, was developed. It Jits together with CAD tools 
developed on the pilot phase to form a complete design 
system for hardwired bit-serial architectures. This design 
system, can completely automate the design of complex 
integrated circuit digital filters with a design time of less 
that a week. This CAD system has been successfully 
applied to the design of a PCM-FDM Transmultiplexer 
with a complexity of 35 000 transistors. 
In order to set up design methodologies for the other 
three architecture types (b)-(d) mentioned above, another 
milestone has been the successful organization of 5 tech­
nical workshops at various partner sites. These workshops 
have helped to further stimulate the partner interaction 
which had already started in the pilot phase. Active work­
groups have been formed with technical personnel from 
different partner sites, which are carrying out joint 
research activities. 
In the work forecasted to be ready by the time the work-
plan is published, the milestones which will be reached 
are summarized here. 
Design methodologies for architecture types (b) and (d) 
will be developed. The beta-version of the filter synthesis 
program FALCON will be delivered. The alpha-version of SAILPLANE (a new limit cycle analysis tool) and the 
final version of CAND I (coefficient optimization tool) will 
be delivered. The results of a design exercise for type (d) 
architectures will be compiled. To support silicon integra­
tion of type (b) and type (d) archtectures the alpha-ver­
sions of a data-path compiler and a controller compiler 
will be delivered. Further progress on version V.I I of the 
standard placement and routing tool CALMP will be 
made. 
'High Yield High Reliability Ultra-large Scale 
Integration System Through Reconfigurability' 
Proj. Ref. 244: B/84 
Project 244 aims to produce ultra large scale integrated 
circuits of one million transistors with a standard 2 um 
CMOS technology, by using defect tolerant architecture, 
configured at the end of the manufacturing cycle. Redun­
dancy introduces new constraints on the design, for inst­
ance, each of the elemental blocks of the design must be 
easily testable and repairable, whilst the increase in area 
of the silicon should not exceed 30 °/o. Specific CAD tools 
have to be developed to allow the efficient use of defect 
tolerant architectures. The tools should help with such 
topics as: yield estimation, test strategy and testability, 
floor planning, sizing and pin count, redundancy, lan­
guage for circuit representation and formal verification. 
'Improvement of Yield and Performance oflCs by Design 
Centering' 
Proj. Ref. 456: B/84 
During the first 6 months of the project, work has been 
done on the following tasks: 
1. Development of a yield and performance 
optimization program. 
2. Study of pre- and postprocessors for the schematic 
input of circuits. 
3. Improvement of transistor models. 
4. Determination of parameter deviations and correla­
tions. 
During that period the partners have achieved the follow­
ing results: 
1. Development of interfaces to transfer the data of the 
approximation and design centering programs to the 
program SPICE. 
2. Linking of the approximation and design centering 
programs to the modified network analysis program. 
3. Investigation of the schematic input of circuits (SDS 
and PC AD). 
4. Development of a new MOS transistor model. 
No C 332/14 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 12.85 
5. Investigation of parameter deviations and correla­
tions in the production of Bipolar and MOS ICs. 
During the following 6 months the project will have car­
ried out the following tasks: 
1. Improvement of the link between design centering 
and network analysis programs. 
2. Development of an interpreter for the calculation of 
circuit characteristics. 
3. Definition of a preprocessor for schematic input of 
circuits in the optimization program. 
4. Establishment of computer controlled parameter 
measuring systems. 
5. Reduction of CPU time for the calculation of the new 
MOS transistor model equations. 
CVS (CAD for VLSI Systems)' 
Proj. Ref 802: A/85 
The aim of the CVS project is to implement an integrated 
CAD system capable of coping with the needs of the 
1990s, when the improvements of the semiconductor tech­
nology will consent to produce chips of about 1 million 
transistor complexity. Such a CAD system must lead to a 
factor 10 improvement in design time, based on novel 
tools for architecture synthesis connected with parame­
trized digital/analogue cell implementations techniques. 
CVS draws heavily on results from the existing projects 
CVT (Microelectronics Programme 3744/81, MR-04-
CVT) and SPECTRE (ESPRITProject No 554) 
'European CAD Integration Project (ECIP)' 
Proj. Ref. 887: A/85 
Complementary project with 1058 
EC1P addresses the area of data exchange and infra­
structure standards with the objective of defining and 
promoting standards within the European IT industry. 
The ability to readily interchange data and CAD tools 
between companies seems a key area for bringing into 
practical reality many of the benefits of collaborative tool 
development in Europe and for making available the 
results of ESPRIT to the wider European IT community. 
Effective liaison between the ECIP project and all other 
ESPRIT CAD projects will be established ensuring trans­
fer of experience in both directions. In particular, the pro­
ject 1058 which develops advanced tools will be comple­
mentary to the ECIP project. In this way it will be 
ensured that the standards developed in ECIP are based 
on a wide experience of requirements and should there­fore be widely acceptable to developers of present and 
future CAD systems. 
'Advanced Integrated Circuit Design Aids (AIDA)' 
Proj. Ref. 888: A/85 
AID A intends to explore the application of modern pro­
gramming techniques and knowledge base engineering to 
CAD tool development. It will constitute a design 
assistant that proposes solutions rather than record and 
validate the designers ideas. This allows the designer to 
apply his creativity where it is most efficient leading to 
improved design quality. 
Research and development work will be done, applying 
modern programming techniques (e.g. those developed 
for expert systems) to VLSI-CAD tools. The potential 
contribution of these techniques is twofold: 
1. The basic techniques may be used to make new tools, 
much more efficient than classical ones. 
2. The basic integrated circuit design knowledge may be 
recorded into the machine, and used by "expert" 
modules, under the control of a system designer. 
AID A project intend to explore these two domains, to 
develop experimental tools using these techniques, and to 
experiment on real industrial cases to demonstrate the 
benefit they could give. 
'Cooperative Development of an Integrated, Hierarchical 
and Multiview VLSI-Design System with Distributed 
Management on Workstations' 
Proj. Ref. 991: A/85 
This project aims at the development of a complete, inte­
grated, open and cost effective design system on a large 
variety of intelligent workstations. The work is an exten­
sion of project MR-09-DFT under the Microelectronics 
Programme 3744/81 and focusses on functional data 
models, distributed datamanagements, verification of 
submicron structures, advanced multilevel simulation as 
well as self-testing/fault tolerant synthesis techniques. 
Commercial exploitation is envisaged. 
'Knowledge Based Design Assistant for Modular VLSI 
Design' 
Proj. Ref 1058: A/85 
Complementary project with 887 
The goal of the project is the development of an interac­
tive knowledge based system for verification of electrical, 
20. 12.85 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 332/15 
functional and timing correctness of flexible VLSI mod­
ules as generated by silicon compilers. The system is 
highly interactive during the module design phase. 
During the call of a module by the floorplanning pro­
gram, the system is driven by a rule based expert system 
of which both an engineering workstation version as well 
as an advanced LISP machine based version will be 
developed. A verification speed of 20 000 transistors/hr 
on a workstation is projected. The system also automati­
cally calls a novel waveform relaxation switch-circuit level 
simulator implemented on a multiprocessor hardware 
accelerator. This will lead to 100...300 times SPICE per­
formance and will allow for efficient and accurate simu­
lation of up to 4000 transistor circuits. Moreover, a new 
interactive mode, based on the waveform analysis tech­
nique, will allow for 'real time'user interaction supported 
by an advanced multiwindow user interface. The adapta­
tion of a register-transfer-functional switch level simula­
tor to the hardware accelerator will be investigated. A 
knowledge based extractor will provide a link to sym­
bolic/procedural module layout generators. 
As a complementary project to 887 (ECIP), it will ensure 
that the standards promoted by ECIP will keep future 
developments in CAD for VLSI possible. 
1.3.3. Scope for further work 
This area is well covered by projects retained and is 
unlikely to be considered for inclusion in call(s) for 
proposals to be published in 1986. 
R&D area 1.4: Compound semiconductor integrated cir­
cuits 
Integrated digital circuits in III-V compound semicon­
ductor materials offer potential speed and/or speed 
power product advantages over silicon circuits because 
of higher electron mobility. The technology complexity 
of these materials is some years behind silicon and con­
siderable materials and process research are necessary. 
Because of the increasing market for high-speed, low-
power circuits, many problems need to be tackled in 
order to bring forward knowledge in this area. 
The technology encompasses GaAs circuits based on 
Field Effect Transistors (FET's) as well as GaAs/ 
GaAlAs heterojunction structures using high electron 
mobility transistors (HEMT) or the heterojunction 
bipolar transistors (HJBTs). Basic research is required in materials preparation, ion —implantation, and IC 
process technologies. 
1.4.1. Objectives 
The specific objectives of this programme are: 
— at 1 year: demonstrate feasibility of MESFET 
based circuits with 1000 gates and gate delay (tpd) 
of less than 100 ps. Also, demonstrate basic HJBT 
and/or HEMT circuits (other than ring oscillators). 
— at 2 years: demonstrate at least IK memory (less 
than 1 ns access time, less than 500 mW dissipa­
tion) and/or equivalent complexity circuits. 
Demonstrate feasibility of 100 gates HEMT and/or 
HJBT circuits. 
— at 3 years: evaluate yield on a demonstrator circuit 
of IK or equivalent complexity, on at least 10 
wafers. Demonstrate feasibility of IK HEMT 
memory and /or comparable HJBT circuit. Com­
parison of various technologies (if possible with 
the same circuit for each technology). Decision for 
selecting one out of them. 
— at 4 years: demonstrate 16K memory (or equiva­
lent) in the selected technology. 
— at 5 years: Demonstrate large circuit of 10 to 20K 
gates complexity, gate delay of less than 50 ps with 
figure of merit less than 100 femtojoules. This 
demonstrator could be a 16K memory with an 
access time in the order of few nanoseconds or it 
could be defined during year 3 to fulfil needs of 
other ESPRIT areas (specially high speed data bus) 
or of telecommunication industry (signal process­
ing circuits for instance). 
1.4.2. Current projects and projects under negotiation 
'Compound Semiconductor Materials and Integrated 
Circuits — /' 
Proj.Ref 232: A/84 
The overall objective of this programme is to establish 
gallium arsenide digital integrated circuit technologies 
using thex GaAs MESFET, high electron mobility transis­
tors (HEMT/TEGFET) and heterojunction bipolar tran­
sistors (HBT) as the active circuit elements. These circuits 
will be configured to enable the speed and power advan­
tages of GaAs over silicon to be suitably demonstrated. 
No C 332/16 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 12. 85 
Compound Semiconductor Materials and Integrated 
Circuits — //' 
Proj. Kef. 522: A/84 
The general objective of the research programme is to 
develop advanced aspects of GaAs digital integrated 
circuit process technology and associated expertise to 
enable the fabrication of fast, high performance digital 
circuits. Whole IC fabrication is not considered to be 
pre-competitive. Demonstrator digital ICs will be devel­
oped to evaluate the performance of the various logic cir­
cuit technologies. 
The following project is the result of a rearrangement of 
the two preceding ongoing contracts No 232 and 522, 
with some improvements required to meet the objectives 
of the workplan. 
'Compound Semi-Conductor Integrated Circuits' 
Proj. Ref 843: A/85 
This project is a collaborative programme involving six 
major European companies from three countries in an 
attempt to establish high speed GaAs VLSI circuits in the 
commercial market. The availability of state of the art 
circuits will serve European system and equipment manu­
facturers in the IT industry and help to provide them with 
the necessary worldwide competitive edge. 
The programme will investigate in detail two active dev­
ices which are potential candidates for LSI/VLSI inte­
gration, namely MESFETs and HEMT. They are 
presently in different stages of maturity, but many key 
technologies are common, such as ion — implantation, 
advanced lithography (e-beam and DSW), dry processing 
and self-alignment techniques. They will be investigated 
in parallel in all their aspects, from device modelling to 
fabrication yield, by the participating members in close 
collaboration so rapid advances can be made with limited 
resources. 
During the five years of this programme, various key 
demonstrators of increasing complexity, such as counter, 
multiplexers, multipliers, A to Ds, SRAMs and gate 
arrays will be produced. They will provide the necessary 
feedback to design and technology and will help to steer 
the programme towards its VLSI goal. 
'Technology of GaAs-GaAlAs Bipolar Integrated 
Circuits' 
Proj. Ref. 971: A/85 
The general objective of the research programme is to 
develop advanced aspects of GaAs/GaAlAs bipolar integrated circuit (MBTs) process technology and asso­
ciate expertise. 
The two bipolar logics that will be developed consist of 
emitter coupled logic (ECL) and integrated injection logic 
(I2L). Single heterojunction (wide gap emitter) — MBTs, 
and double heterojunction (wide gap emitter and collec­
tor) — DHBTs will be investigated and compared. At the 
same time, efficient analytic switching models for these 
devices will be developed. A combination of numerical 
simulation and experimental verification will be used to 
ensure the velidity of the analytic models for discrete 
devices. The first two years will be spent on the develop­
ment of high performance transistors (3 um emitter width 
HBTs with an fT exceeding 17 GHz) with good yield and 
uniformity on 2" diameter substrates. Simple integrated 
circuits like divide by 2 and divide by 4 circuits, will be 
fabricated for operation with high input frequency 
(exceeding 4 GHz). One of the exciting tasks will be the 
realization of non-alloyed ohmic contacts, which with the 
programme on metallic-alloys, such as plasma deposited 
W-Si, enables the realization of advanced integrated cir­
cuits. In this respect, the state of the semiconductor sur­
face chemistry is recognized to be an important factor. 
During the two following years, simple front-end signal 
processing test circuits (3 bit Adder for instance) will be 
fabricated to determine applicability of HBTs for a fast 8 
bit processor. 
In the later stage of the project high speed demonstrator 
circuits will be developed such as digital analog converters 
or signal processing circuits. 
'CAD Methods for Analog GaAs Monolithic ICs' 
Proj. Ref. 255: B/84 
The major emphasis of the research programme is the 
development of a full CAD library of theoretical models 
and experimental data for passive elements and active 
components required for the design of GaAs analog ICs. 
The work starts by deriving physical models and equiva­
lent circuits for different types of MESFET and passive 
elements both for lumped and distributed approaches. 
The next step is the CAD of groups of passive and active 
devices for the integrated implementation of elementary 
functions. Here besides circuit analysis, coupling between 
adjacent elements and thermal distribution will also be 
simulated. In the successive phase, analog ICs defined as 
high level functional blocks have to be considered with 
special analysis programs. This final CAD program 
includes package effect evaluation and error sensitivity 
analysis. Interactive optimization will be organized in a 
user-oriented, transferable package. The project starts 
with C and X band investigation to be extended to 18 
GHz. The CAD capability will be proven with different 
GaAs IC demonstrators, including submicron dimension 
devices. 
20. 12. 85 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 332/17 
'Large Diameter Semi-Insulating GaAs' 
Proj.Ref.U28:B/85 
GaAs Integrated Circuits are using an n-type active layer 
prepared by ion implantation of donors directly in semi-
insulating wafers, followed by an annealing to cure the 
implantation damages. In order to realize LSI circuits, 
one must control the properties of each individual micro-
FET needed in this case and this can only be achieved if 
the active layer of each of them is perfectly under control. 
This project is aimed at developing an industrial 
approach for the preparation of large diameter (2") 
semi-insulating GaAs substrates which can allow to pre­
pare very homogeneous active layers by ion implantation 
and thus to control the properties of each individual 
micro-FET made on it. 
Three different goals have to be reached: 
1. Determine ways to define material homogeneity for 
ingots of diameter 2" and larger. This will be done by 
correlation between results of measurements made 
on bulk material and on processed wafers cut from it. 
2. Investigate possible ways to improve cristalline 
quality by using two parallel and complementary 
approaches, and end up with either a choice between 
the two techniques or a mixture of both. 
3. Grow larger (2") ingots of suitable quality using the 
recipes worked out in goals No 1 and 2. 
1.4.3. Scope for further work 
This area is well covered by projects retained and is 
unlikely to be considered for inclusion in call(s) for 
proposals to be published in 1986. ble with III-V integrated circuits providing a fast electr­
ical interface. This programme is not aimed at optics-
based computers but rather at providing components 
and subsystems for large bit rate transmissions. 
Remark: The achievement of the objectives of this pro­
gramme needs very large resources which may not be 
available within the framework of ESPRIT. On the 
other hand these objectives represent a minimum target 
to remain competitive. 
1.5.1. Objectives 
a) Integrated electronic and optical components on the 
same chip: 
— at 1 year: demonstrate a monolithic photodetec-
tor with internal amplification. 
— at 2 years: demonstrate a monolithically inte­
grated receiver with bandwidth greater 
than or equal to 2.5 GHz. 
— at 3 years: demonstrate an integrated transmitter 
with a bandwidth greater than 2.5 
GHz. 
After year 3, further optimizations of receiver, transmit­
ter, and perhaps also repeaters have to take into 
account the progress and needs of the telecommunica­
tions industry and of the other ESPRIT areas. 
b) Wavelength multiplexing (WDM) with integrated 
optics: 
at 1 year: demonstrate of DFB laser with thres: 
hold current lower than 50 mA; 
demonstration of waveguide fed pho-
todetector; low loss monolithic wave­
guide (smaller than ldB/cm). 
at 2 years: demonstrate of 2.5 GHz bandwidth 
modulators in semiconductors. 
at 3 years: demonstrate an integrated transmitter 
with a bandwidth greater than 2.5 
GHz. 
at 4 years: demonstrate integrated WDM trans­
mitter and receiver modules. 
R&D Area 1.5: Optoelectronics 
Optoelectronic devices will be increasingly required for 
telecoms transmission, intra- and extra- computer con­
nections, ultra wide band image processing and switch­
ing. Future generations of mono-mode communica­
tions systems may use coherent detection and multi­
channel wavelength multiplexing and may be phase 
modulated. This will provide improved performance 
and be compatible with integrated optical logic. It will 
allow processing, combining and routing at very high 
speeds. In semiconductor form it will also be compati-At this point, some inputs from other ESPRIT areas 
and telecommunications industry are needed to imple­
ment a demonstration link at a several gigabit rate. 
1.5.2. Current projects and projects under negotiation 
InP Based Optoelectronic circuits' 
Proj. Ref 263: A/84 
The general objective of the research programme is to sig­
nificantly increase the data rate in information 
No C 332/18 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 12.85 
transmission systems, by the use of high performance 
devices and with a variety of multiplexing techniques, 
mainly with the use of different wavelengths. In the first 
three years, activity will be focussed on achieving and 
utilizing single mode discrete functions suitable for sub­
sequent hybrid and monolithic integration. Full hybrid 
integration will be worked on in year three and four. The 
work on these materials will be oriented towards reprodu­
cible growth of high quality, high homogeneity, large 
area heterostructures suitable for lasers with low thres­
hold current density and well controlled wavelength, for 
photodetectors with low residual doping level and for 
waveguides with low losses. 
The second part of this programme is aimed at the 
development of the tehnology needed for the fabrication 
of the electronic devices in a form which can be integrated 
with the optical devices. A range of devices will be investi­
gated and compared for use in a range of functions. As a 
result of the importance of longer wavelength operation 
all the work will be on InP-based semiconductor com­
pounds. A very important potential benefit of the pro­
gramme is that the materials to be studied are expected 
to have very high performance in conventional electronic 
circuits. Thus the programme may lead to improve elec­
tronic functions as well as sophisticated opto-electronic 
circuits. 
In addition to this programme, one work package is to be 
added to investigate the possibility of fabricating an inte­
grated optic source with independent control of both out­
put power and wavelength using electro optic effect and 
current injection to tune distributed feedback (DFB) grat­
ings lasers. 
'Optical Interconnect for VLSI and High Bit Rate ICs' 
Proj. Ref. 380: B/84 
This speculative research programme is undertaken to 
investigate the application of optical interconnection to 
reduce the package pin count and electro magnetic inter­
ference in VLSI and high speed integrated circuits and in 
sub-assemblies containing these components. The current 
one year study to investigate in detail the role and capa­
bility of interconnection got underway in early 1985. 
Early work has included design studies of the perform­
ance, cost and implementations of optical sources and 
detectors and choice of optical fibre for optical intercon­
nect. The limitations of optical interconnect have been 
assessed in terms of power budgets, bit rates, and tech­
nological compatibility and the application of the technol­
ogy is currently being studied considering communication 
protocols, IC performance boundaries and the impact on 
processor architectures. Some experimental work has 
commenced on investigating low cost techniques for fibre to chip interfaces and for the incorporation of optical 
fibres into printed circuit boards. 
The next project is a continuation of the preceding 
on-going project No 380. 
'Optical Interconnect for VLSI and High Bit Rate ICs' 
Proj. Ref. 986: B/85 
The inherent wide bandwith and crosstalk immunity of 
optical transmission media permit very high bit rate sig­
nals to be readily distributed overcoming the transmission 
line and rf-interference problems encountered with very 
high bit rate ICs. Many lower bit rate signals, each of 
which would conventionally employ a package pin, can be 
time multiplexed together to form one easily transmitted, 
high bit rate optical signal which leaves the package via 
one optical pin so avoiding very high pin count packages 
for VLSI chips. 
The following work packages form the proposed pro­
gramme: 
Design, manufacture and evaluate functional optical 
interconnect demonstrator working at up to I GBs~' and 
demonstrating pin count reduction for VLSI chip. Inves­
tigation of optical interconnect up to 5 GBs~'. Optimise 
physical aspects of optical interconnections. Undertake 
extended applications study. 
'Molecular Engineering for Optoelectronics' 
Proj. Ref 443: B/84 
The aim of the project is the development of new organic 
electro-optic and nonlinear optical materials. There is an 
increasing requirement for such materials in the rapidly 
expanding fields of integrated optics and optical com­
munications. The target of the project is to produce novel 
materials for the fabrication of devices utilising linear 
electro-optical effects, second-order frequency mixing 
effects and third-order effects. 
Basic Technological Studies for Gain As MISFETs' 
Proj. Ref. 927: B/85 
In 0.53Ga0.47As epitaxially grown on semi-insulating 
In P substrates is a promising material for high speed log­
ical devices as well as integrated micro-optoelectronic cir­
cuits for 1.3 um applications. Insulated gate field effect 
transistors (MISFETs) can be realized on this material. 
20. 12.85 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 332/19 
This programme has three aims: 
— first, to obtain a better understanding of the basic 
phenomena at the insulator/InGaAs interface, 
— second, to explore the possibilities of ion implanta­
tion, 
— third, to evaluate the influence of the InP substrate 
quality. 
Once these three aspects have been explored, technologi­
cal processes for high speed logic devices and integrated 
optoelectronics will be optimized. 
1.5.3. Scope for further work 
This area is well covered by projects retained and is 
unlikely to be considered for inclusion in call(s) for 
proposals to be published in 1986. 
R&D area 1.6: Advanced Display Technologies 
1.6.1. Objectives 
In many product areas, eg workstations, electronic off­
ice equipment etc. there is an urgent need in Europe for 
new advanced display systems to replace and 
supercede the conventional CRT. Such displays would 
need to be of large size (A4 and above) and of medium 
to high definition. Colour capability would also be 
desirable/necessary. 
Many approaches are currently being investigated. A 
technology definition effort in which major existing 
community practitioners would combine their know­
ledge and experience is required to define within a 
short time period the most adequate way to tackle this 
problems. 
1.6.2. Current projects and projects under negotiation 
'Materials and Technologies for High Mobility TFTsfor 
LC Display Bus Drivers' 
Proj.Ref 49 LB/84 
In current practice, the peripheral driver circuits for active 
matrix liquid crystal displays consist of external IC-chips. 
This project proposes to develop thin film materials and 
technologies for column- and line-bus drivers to replace 
the external IC-chips. The main task will be to develop a 
low temperature deposition process for the semiconductor 
thin film material compatible with the glass substrates 
used for the LC-display. The main material suggested is polycrystal-line silicon, deposited in a high power glow 
discharge process. Furthermore elementary Thin Film 
Transistor (TFT) circuits suitable for bus driver shift 
registers will be developed and investigated and Driver 
prototypes of short length shall be combined with 
LC-matrix display and tested. 
'Large Area Complex Liguid Crystal Displays Addressed 
by Thin Film Silicon Transistors' 
Proj. Ref 833: B/85 
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 the present 
project is to investigate a viable technology for the fabri­
cation of large area (A5 to A4) complex (up to WOO 
addressable lines) LCDs based on polycrystalline and 
amorphous silicon transistor active matrices. Thin-film 
silicon devices show promise of higher yield and reliability 
than other approaches. Extensive investigation of the fol­
lowing areas is planned: optimisation of transistor char­
acteristics, yield, and stability over large areas; special 
high throughput, large area semiconductor processing 
equipment; special LCDs fabrication techniques; colour 
systems; interactive displays; human factors. 
1.6.3. Scope for further work 
Further work in this area is dependent on the outcome 
of the technology definition efforts described in 1.6.2. 
This area is well covered by projects retained and is 
unlikely to be considered for inclusion in call(s) for 
proposals to be published in 1986. 
R&D area 1.7: General Supporting Topics 
1.7.1. Topics 
This area covers: 
— research themes not already identified in the 
microelectronics areas 1.1 to 1.6 
— topics which support one or more of the areas 1.1 
to 1.6 
— research themes which look forward beyond the 
early stages of the microelectronics programme 
towards the submicron goals. 
Since this is very wide-ranging in its scope, no specific 
programme of work is set out. Instead, on-going pro-
No C 332/20 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 12.85 
jects are briefly described (in numerical order) and 
indications given of other candidate topics. 
1.7.2. Current projects and projects under negotiation 
'Advanced Interconnect for VLSI' 
Proj. Ref. 14: B/83 
The overall objective of this programme is to develop high 
density interconnect compatible with one micron MOS 
and Bipolar VLSI technologies. This interconnect tech­
nology will feature four levels of low resistivity metal 
interconnect with high electromigration resistance and 
stable, low resistance contacts to the underlying silicon 
circuit. 
The Pilot Phase of the project has demonstrated good 
progress and cooperation between the partners. A com­
mon process, common test mask and common test meth­
ods have been established in order to provide a practical 
environment for cooperative research. 
In 1985 this core process has continued to be used with 
yield improving and the first milestone has been 
achieved: it has been decided to continue with polyimide 
as dielectric for the core process. 
The following milestones of the programme are: 
Sept. 1985 — Specification for Test Reticle for 5 
/am and below. 
Demonstration of metal dry etch 
capability adequate for 5 jum pitch 
Dec. 1985 — Test Reticle available 
Sept. 1986 — Select Optimum Process 
Demonstration of 3-Layer Metal 
at 5 fim pitch 
Dec. 1986 — Yield and Reliability data on 
Optimum Process 
Sept. 1987 — Demonstration of 4-Layer Metal 
at 3 /um pitch. 
'Automatic Design Validation of Integrated Circuits 
Using E-beam' 
Proj. Ref 271: B/84 
The project seeks to develop a methodology for the auto­
matic design errors diagnosis of VLSI devices based on 
the observability facility given by an electron beam sys­
tem, connection to the CAD environment, pattern recog­
nition to automatically position the E-beam, global methodology, possibly based on expert systems to define 
the diagnostic strategy, new hardware circuitry to enh­
ance the EBTperformance. The areas of computer con­
trol of the electron beam system, interfacing to CAD sof­
tware, identification of circuit elements, methodology for 
design error diagnosis, test pattern generation for elec­
tron beam debugging, design for electron beam testabil­
ity, and delectron beam equipment development, will be 
addressed in order to achieve this overall objective. 
'Assessment of Silicon MBE Layers' 
Proj. Ref. 305: B/84 
This project is divided into three parts: 
1. Growth of silicon layers by molecular beam epitaxy 
(MBE). 
2. Continuing in situ measurement of process character­
istics. 
3. Implementing and developing techniques for the 
characterisation of MBE layers. This information 
will then be used to optimise growth conditions. 
It is planned that four specific developmental tasks be 
undertaken on four specific techniques. The remainder of 
the programme will be concerned with the application of 
existing techniques and the interpretation of the totality 
of the results so obtained. 
'Plasma Deposition Technology for Magnetic Recording 
Thin Film Media' 
Proj. Ref. 334: B/84 
It is expected that in near future recording media and 
heads prepared by thin film technology will compete the 
conventional particulate media and conventional heads. 
Both longitudinal and vertical recording in thin films 
promise a significant increase of information density. In 
this project, appropriate deposition technologies will be 
studied which provide high deposition rates to produce 
such films in a industrial scale. This includes magnetron 
sputtering, electron beam evaporation and plasma en­
hanced metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. 
'Silicon-on-insulator Systems Combined with Low 
Temperature' 
Proj. Ref 370: B/84 
In the project a number of techniques will be used and 
combined in order to obtain good quality single crystal 
layers with thicknesses varying between 0.5 fim and 50 
20. 12. 85 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 332/21 
/im for a variety of applications. These relate to both 
silicon-on-insulator (SOI) and to SOS (silicon-on-sap­
phire) for high performance integrated circuits, and also 
for the provision of alternatives to the currently used cum­
bersome dielectric isolation (DI) processing. 
'Dopant Profiling for Submicron Structures' 
Proj. Refi 519: B/84 
The aim of this project is to realize the capabilities for the 
accurate determination of shallow dopant profiles as used 
in submicron devices. To achieve this the development of 
one electrical technique, i.e. spreading resistance, is pro­
posed together with an intercomparison of this technique 
with two other non-electrical methods, i.e. Secondary Ion 
Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) and Rutherford Back Scat­
tering (RBS). The primary emphasis of the project will be 
put on the development and use of the spreading resist­
ance technique with the other techniques being used pri­
marily for comparison. A major by-product of this 
approach will be the data enabling a better understand­
ing of diffusion kinetics to be obtained. In addition the 
work will concentrate on profiling Boron Phosphorus, 
Arsenic and Antimony and will also involve the use of 
and assessment of novel annealing methods such as strip 
heater andflashlamp annealing. 
'Investigation of all aspects of the Interconnection of High 
Pin Count Integrated Circuits' 
Proj. Refi 544: B/83-84 
This project has the following aims: 
1. The development of alternative methods of connect­
ing the integrated circuit to its interconnect medium. 
2. The development of large area high density intercon­
nect using multilayer polymer techniques. 
3. The development of reasonably large area ultra high 
density interconnect based upon a combination of 
thick film dielectrics and additive base metal electro­
plating methods. 
It is the aim to realize all interconnect systems with just 
two layers, thereby achieving low cost through reduced 
handling and inexpensive materials. 
High Resolution Plasma Etching in Semiconductor Tech­
nology-Fundamentals, Processing and Equipment' 
Proj. Refi 574: B/84 
It is widely recognised within the electronics industry that 
plasma etching will play a vital role in achieving sub­micron technology both in silicon and 111/V semiconduc­
tor systems. However, much remains to be done to under­
stand the complex chemistry and physics involved by 
applying suitable diagnostic methods. Until this is accom­
plished the full potential of plasma etching will not be 
realized. The overall programme is necessarily interactive 
and brings together centres of expertise in plasma chemis­
try and physics, instrument manufacturers and a supplier 
of chemicals to the electronics industry. Collectively they 
possess a unique combination of knowledge and facilities 
which will assure success in this broadly based 
programme. 
' Wafer Scale Integration' 
Proj. Refi 824: B/85 
The design and demonstration of a 25 million transistors 
system on a single chip is to be performed by connecting 
the good cells of a wafer. The demonstrator chosen is a 4 
Mbit static RAM in a 1.4 jim CMOS technology using 
redundancy at the intracell and intercell levels, in order 
to tolerate end of manufacturing defects. Special interest 
will be given to test facilities and test strategy both at the 
cell and whole wafer levels. After test, reconfiguration 
techniques will be used to avoid faulty elements in the cell 
and to further increase cell yield. Decoding logic and 
externally controlled switches will be used to configure 
the good cells on the wafer. 
Software will be produced to provide automatic selection 
of the switches to be programmed to give the necessary 
interconnect. The yield of alumunium interconnection 
lines will be increased by repair of short or open. A study 
of thermal and electrical characteristics of the package 
and bonding will be made and used to provide a suitable 
package for the demonstrator. 
'Packagesfor High Speed Digital GaAs ICs' 
Proj. Refi 830: B/85 
The various package design requirements being evolved 
to meet the requirements of the GaAs IC industry are 
being addressed. The project will result in the establish­
ment of package standards together with clearly defined 
design principles and methods of fabrication. 
The project will lead to the establishment of 4 package 
designs, an 8,16,24 and 40 I/O lead package having the 
necessary operational characteristics for mounting and 
hermetically encapsulating GaAs ICs for use in high 
speed digital applications. Extensive use will be made of 
sophisticated computer aided design and simulation 
modelling throughout the project, the success of which 
No C 332/22 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 12. 85 
has already been established in the case of the 8 I/O 
lead package. Three technical approaches to package 
construction will be investigated, the use of direct-sealing 
techniques, glass joining fired ceramic and co-firing 
glass-ceramic. Associated investigational topics will 
include materials, metallisations, heat dissipation etc. 
Sample packages of the various designs will be made 
available for evaluation and qualification approval test­
ing. This project is complementary to project 958. 
'High Performance VLSI Packaging for Complex 
Electronic Systems' 
Prof Refi 958: B/85 
This project is directed towards demonstrating the feasi­
bility and the evaluation of high density structure on 
which VLSI chips will be connected with very dense (100 
to 125 fim pitch) TAB interconnect on a high performance 
multichip substrate. 
Electrical and thermal performance shall be measured to 
evaluate the capability of such a structure which could be 
used as a basic building block of a very high performance 
system (1GHz clock or 20-50 ns system cycle time). 
This project is complementary to project No 830. 
'Algorithms for a Robust and Efficient Semiconductor 
Simulator' 
Proj. Refi 962: B/85 
This work is providing fully tested general algorithms for 
simulating semi-conductor devices in three dimensions. 
These algorithms would solve for the steady on-state con­
dition of a device, or for dynamic transient and small 
signal conditions, and to take into account the interaction 
of device operation with the temperature of the crystal 
lattice. The algorithms are to be tested in research com­
puter codes developed as a result of the project, and this 
code will be validated against real devices. 
Since the computational demands of these algorithms are 
very large there will be a strong interaction between suita­
ble algorithms and the availability of computers with 
advanced architectures. A study will also be carried out 
to delimit the applicability of the assumed physical 
model, both with reference to materials and device 
dimensions. 
'0.5 Micron X-Ray Lithography Masks Resists and 
Transferred Images' 
Proj. Refi 1007: B/85 
The objective of this work is 0,5 pm X-Ray lithography up 
to the actual demonstration of the lithography process. In particular, resist and mask technologies will be devel­
oped, appropriate to 0,5 fim resolution while compatible 
with higher resolution limits. Hence mask technology will 
utilize Si-based membranes which are appropriate for use 
with the softer (i.e. higher-resolution) wavelengths. 
'Advanced Mask and Reticle Technology for VLSI Sub-
Micron Microelectronics Devices' 
Proj. Refi 1043: B/85 
This project addresses specific areas of the maskmaking 
process to develop new equipment, materials and pro­
cesses and the aim is to combine such developments to 
create an enhanced mask and reticle technology to satisfy 
the wafer fabrication requirements for advanced and 
complex devices. 
'Ultra Sensitive Impurity Analysis for Structures and 
Materials' 
Proj. Refi 1056: B/85 
This project is developing an advanced physical analysis 
technique which is needed for the characterisation of 
microelectronics fabrication technologies. The technique 
which is based on sputtering and laser resonance ioniza­
tion will be highly sensitive, free of matrix effects when 
multilayers are profiled and suitable to three-dimensional 
profiling with higher sensitivity as compared to standard 
Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry. 
1.7.3. Scope for further work 
a) Sub-micron processing research themes in support 
of ongoing project areas 1.1 and 1.2. 
To achieve processing at feature sizes of 0.5 urn and 
below the following topics are identified: 
i) 0.5 \im lithography with production throughput 
and associated resist development which should 
be compatible with dry etching processes 
ii) Modelling of processes and devices including 
experimental verification. 
b) B-type research themes 
i) In support of areas 1.1 and 1.2 
— Semiconductor processing materials and 
equipments 
— Photo-assisted technology 
20.12.85 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 332/23 
— High Speed on-wafer testing 
— Automated manufacturing and control, 
ii) in support of areas 1.4 and 1.5 
— Specific CAD for III-V-integrated circuits 
— Modelling optical elements 
— reliability 
iii) Other general research themes 
— Lithography (X-ray-, Ion-,) 
— Various active elements on high mobility 
semi-conducting materials 
2.0. Introduction 
In 1983 the need for a comprehensive software technol­
ogy programme was justified on the basis of the high 
rate of increase in the complexity and amount of the 
software to be generated through to the end of the cen­
tury. This need is even more evident today, 2 years after 
the start of the ESPRIT Pilot Phase. The objectives of 
the ESPRIT software technology sub-programme are 
being followed by a number of programmes across the 
world. 
The recognition that the key issues relate primarily to 
the development of environments, methods and tools 
to support the design of ever more complex systems 
(which include hardware and software components) of 
high quality and reliability with higher levels of prod­
uctivity has set the major directions being taken by the 
ST programme. After 2 years of ESPRIT Phase 1, we 
now have underway a number of projects which are 
addressing the key issues listed above, and we are now 
in a position to identify the areas which require streng­
thening and indeed adding to the workplan for 
Software Technology. 
The directions required for 1986 are identified in detail 
in the following sections, but the need for new projects 
to promote the rapid transfer of the results of the pro­
gramme into the industrial environment is likely to be 
the main theme for 1986. Therefore the following 
themes will be given for new work called for in call(s) 
for proposals published in 1986: 
(i) reuse of software components 
(ii) commercial security of software 
(iii) demonstrators for evaluation of methods and 
tools in the industrial environment (see section 
2.4.) — advanced physical analysis techniques 
— sensors and transducers 
— new technologies and techniques for ad­
vanced information storage 
— interconnect technologies 
In call(s) for proposals to be published in 1986, priority 
would be given to modelling (with the main emphasis 
on GaAs), to equipment related to automated manufac­
turing and control, and to interconnect technologies. 
Review of the Software Technology sub-programme 
has identified the emphasis which needs to be given to 
the different topic areas, but it is not considered neces­
sary for the 1986 workplan to significantly revise the 
key activities which need to be supported. 
R&D Area 2.1: Theories, Methods and Tools 
The need to support the system development process 
with more rigorous methods and tools is a major theme 
in the ST workplan. Measurement of productivity and 
of system quality and performance also is of great 
importance. 
2.1.1. Topics 
The topics within this area are: 
System oriented approaches: 
Formal methods for system development 
Hardware/software synergy 
Requirements engineering 
Software security 
Improving current software development approaches: 
Reusability issues 
Formal specification 
Rigorous transformations and methods 
Advanced software development approaches: 
Methods for formal description and verification of con­
current, distributed, embedded real-time systems SUBPROGRAMME 2: 
SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY 
No C 332/24 Official Journal of the European Communities 20.12.85 
Systematic study of the system development process used in a well engineered merge for specification of 
Application of AI techniques to development large distributed systems rapid prototyping is prov­
ided by the analysis of abstract implementations; 
Quality, Reliability, Conformity Testing and 
Demonstrating 
Product and development process metrics 
2.1.2. Current Projects and Projects under Negotiation 
System Oriented Approaches 
'Formal Methods for Asynchronous Systems' 
Prof Ref 1033: B/85 
The project aims to provide a formal framework and a 
suitable toolset for the development of asynchronous 
embedded micro and distributed systems. 
The formal framework is based on: 
— Scott's domain-based state machine, for the mathe­
matical model; 
— Hoare's logic and temporal logic, for the correct­
ness in analysis and design. 
The toolset includes presentation language and tools such 
as a design database, formal design provers based on 
theorem proving techniques, designer's assistants and 
simulators. The toolset will be linked to an asynchronous 
system development environment which is currently being 
implemented and will also be compatible with PCTE. 
Improving current Software development approaches 
'Personal Workstation for Incremental Graphical 
Specification and Formal Implementation of Non-
Sequential Systems (GRASPIN)' 
Prof Ref. 125: A/83 
The project aims at a personal software development 
workstation for incremental Graphical Specification and 
stepwise formal Implementation of Nonsequential 
systems. 
The methodological framework is characterized by an 
integration of formal and informal techniques in the 
development process: 
— structured analysis diagrams and entity relation­
ship diagrams are used for requirement analysis; 
— an extension of the 'initial semantics' approach to 
algebraic specification and high-level Petri-nets are — Modula, Ada-like languages are considered for the 
programming activity. 
Semi-formal transformations of system descriptions at 
different levels are supported by validation and documen­
tation activities. 
A set of tools supporting the GRASPIN methodology is 
designed on top of PCTE common tools, which makes a 
significant use of graphics and of concepts such as focuss­
ing techniques, multiple windowing concepts, and simul­
taneous handling of different contexts. 
'Software development using concurrently executable 
modules (PEACOCK)' 
Proj. Ref. 266: B/84 
The objective of the project is the design and implementa­
tion of a unified family of languages covering the whole 
software life-cycle. All languages will use the concept of 
'Concurrently Executable Module', and have a common 
signature (abstract syntax). 
The family includes a semi formal language for require­
ments capture, algebraic languages for formal specifica­
tion, and procedural languages for implementation. 
The project will also provide education and training 
material, as well as evaluation reports on field trials. 
'Program Development by Specification and 
Transformation (PROSPECTRA)' 
The objectives of this project are to develop a strict meth­
odology for program development by transformations 
from formal specification. 
A wide spectrum language from formal specifications to 
Ada programs will be defined with a semantics covering 
the concurrent aspects. 
The transformation rules are proved correct 'once and for 
all', and their application, supported by software, would 
guarantee the development of programs correct in rela­
tion to specification. The use of Ada as a standard 
language, and specifications using annotations in Anna, 
or an Anna-like language, will ensure portabilities Proj. Ref 390: B/84 
20. 12.85 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 332/25 
between APSE's. In order to support the use of these 
tools in a workstation, a collection of additional tools 
would be developed. 
The tools will be generated according to a uniform para­
digm at each level: system development, transformation 
development, Anna/Ada and control. 
'Software Environment for the Design of Open 
Distributed Systems (SED OS)' 
Prof Ref 410: B/84 
The objective of the project is the definition of formal des­
cription techniques and support tools for development and 
implementation of OSI protocols and services and more 
generally, of open distributed systems. 
Two formal languages will be defined: ES TELLE (based 
on a state-machine model), and LOTOS which combines 
the algebraic specification language ACT-ONE and the 
CCS calculus. Both languages will be submitted to the 
ISO standardization procedure. 
Prototypes of syntax-directed editors, of verification and 
simulation tools will be produced for both languages. The 
project will also specify compilers and test sequence 
generators. 
'Formal Description of Arbitrary Systemss by Means of 
Functional Languages' 
Proj. Ref. 88LB/85 
The project aims at developing a prototype of a general 
purpose system description environment based on the 
so-called 'system semantics'. 
System semantics is an extension of the denotational 
semantics of programming languages in the sense that it 
is applicable to arbitrary systems: various properties of a 
system are described by corresponding meaning 
functions. 
A prototype general purpose system description environ­
ment based on functional languages and extended with 
primitives of system semantics will be developed. 
Another goal of the project is the design of a prototype 
system description language for the following two areas: 
analog electronic circuits and digital systems (including 
VLSI). 
'Rigorous Approach to Industrial Software Engineering 
(RAISE)' Proj. Ref. 315: A/84 
The project aims at building a complete systems devel-
opement based on an enhanced version of the VDM 
method. 
The development process described by 'project graphs' 
will be mathematically modelled in terms of logical sys­
tems (institutions) (e.g. equational logic, temporal logic), 
their transformations, system descriptions in various logi­
cal systems, transformations of descriptions. Operational 
models of the project graphs will be related to the activi­
ties of project managers, software engineers, program­
mers and project librarians. 
A wide spectrum language supporting specification design 
will be defined. Extensions of the model-based VDM 
method, particularly for the specifications of concurrent 
systems, will be considered together with property-based 
methods and other model-based methods. 
Tools supporting the RAISE methodology will be built 
(first in prototype form, then in production quality form), 
several industrial applications will be undertaken, and 
training and educational material will be produced. 
'Formalisms, Methods and Tools (FOR-ME-TOO)' 
Proj. Ref. 283: A/84 
The main goal of the project is to define, implement and 
experiment a technology for the process of systematic 
development, verification and validation of software sys­
tems, based on the principle of reusability of software 
components. 
The software development process, when conceived as a 
process with special attention given to the reuse of pre­
fabricated components and to the structuring of the 
system to be developed into usable components as build­
ing blocks is characterized as a combination of the 'top 
down'and 'bottom up'approaches. 
Reusability of descriptions and analysis of the sequential 
aspects of software systems is based on a specification 
language defined by using some of the primitives ofASL: 
a kernel specification language with 'loose' semantics. 
Reusability of descriptions and analysis of the concurrent 
aspects of software systems is based on various classes of 
Petri nets: from condition-event nets to high level nets 
and stochastic Petri nets. 
An environment of support tools will assist the developer 
in following a discipline for stepwise derivation and 
development of Sw components, for retrieval of compo­
nents and for composition ofSw components. 
No C 332/26 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 12.85 
Advanced Software Development Approaches 
'An Integrated Formal Approach to Industrial Software 
Development (METEOR)' 
Proj. Ref. 432: A/84 
The basic goal of this project is the application of formal 
methods to the process of developing industrial software. 
The development process will be studied and modelled by 
individualising building components for analysing exist­
ing methods and developing new methods of software 
development. 
A language for requirement engineering will be defined 
with a semantics covering temporal aspects. 
Algebraic methods are adopted for specifying passive and 
active objects (process algebras and the algebraic specifi­
cation language, ASL), denotational models of concur­
rent systems provide a basis for defining a calculus in 
which various properties of such systems can be proved. 
In particular, the project aims at integrating the object-
based language paradigm, the algebraic approach to 
software specification, the relational approach and 
so-called formal heuristic. 
The impact on management and metrics of the applica­
tion of formal methods in software development will be 
considered. 
Industrial take-up, especially in the area of constructing 
real-time distributed systems, is provided by the planned 
construction of prototype environments. 
'Investigation of Performance Achievable with Highly 
Concurrent Interpretations of Functional Programs' 
Proj. Ref 302: B/84 
The project investigates to use the functional approach 
for achieving thorough exploitation of the potentials of 
highly concurrent hardware architectures. This involves 
measurement of the complexity and parallelism of func­
tional prograins written in the FP, Lispkit and Me-Too 
languages. 
The project will develop: 
— a tool for translating Lispkit and Me-Too to FP; 
— tools to measure dynamic complexity and parallel­
ism of FP programs; 
— a virtual machine to simulate parallel execution of 
functional programs. An evaluation report will be produced on the achievable 
performance of different functional approaches on paral­
lel machines. 
'An Advanced Support Environment for Method Driven 
Development and Evolution of Packaged Software 
(TOOL-USE)' 
Proj. Ref. 510: B/84 
This project will develop techniques for the formal defini­
tion of methods used in the development of software. The 
project focusses on one main idea, namely that the build­
ing of a support environment should be parameterised by 
methods expressed in a development language. It will 
seek to achieve understanding and formal modelling of: 
— the software construction process 
— the application domains 
— the target systems 
and would continue with the definition, implementation 
and evolution of a prototype environment for software 
development based on formally defined methods. 
'Application Software Prototype Implementation System 
(AS PIS)' 
Proj. Ref 401: A/84 
The major aim of this project is the exploitation of state-
of-the-art techniques in the fields of specification lan­
guages and artificial intelligence in order to construct 
tools, termed assistants, helping the partial automation 
of the first phases of the life cycle. 
The main problems which will be tackled by the project 
are: 
— capturing the domain knowledge to be used by the 
assistant; 
— choosing an appropriate representation formalism 
for coding knowledge 
— defining the basic architecture of assistants; 
— defining an appropriate language for interaction 
between assistants and users. 
The final objective of the project is the creation of a set of 
advanced methods and tools which will permit a flexible 
approach to applications software production based on an 
interactive style including mainly: 
rapid prototyping by interpretation of the compo­
nents specifications; 
— reusability of components through knowledge based 
assistants. 
20. 12.85 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 332/27 
'Advanced Interactive Development of Data-Intensive 
Applications (AIDA)' 
Proj. Ref. 892: B/85 
The project will define and develop methodologies, lan­
guages and tools to support specification, prototyping, 
design and implementation of information systems. 
The prototype environment will allow specification in the 
developed System Modelling Language (SML), and pro­
totyping by translation of SML to an executable combi­
nation of FLOP and NIAL. 
Design and implementation will use semi-automatic 
transformations (supported by rule-based assistants) of 
SML to TAXIS, and of TAXIS to DBPL. 
The integration of the various tools will be set on the inte­
gration of their underlying knowledge base. 
'Proof-oriented Systems' 
Proj. Ref. 1041 and 1158: A/85 
The two complementary projects have combined to 
give the above named project. The two parts are: 
'Syntax-directed Tool Generator' 
Proj. Ref. 1041 
The project aims at a meta-system generating syntax 
directed editing, transformation and proof tools, from 
descriptions of the syntax and semantics of the formal­
isms used in software development. 
Meta-languages for the description of context conditions, 
transformation rules, proof rules and tactics will be 
defined. 
A sequence of tool generators accepting those meta-lan-
guages will be designed and release versions of the gener­
ator system will be targeted to widely available environ­
ments. 
'Advanced Techniques integration into Efficient Scientific 
application software (A TES)' 
Proj. Ref. 1158 
This project aims to integrate advanced techniques into 
an integrated Sw development environment within the areas of scientific application programming, with parti­
cular emphasis on efficiency. 
A programming language integrating three advanced 
techniques: 
— abstraction of data types and operators 
— relational database programming for scientific data 
formal specification and proof 
will be defined by taking into account the specificity of 
scientific programming. 
An efficient software development environment will 
include a proof subsystem which allows the user to vali­
date an algorithm with respect to some specification, or 
to get error information if the algorithm is invalid. 
The adequacy of the whole system will be evaluated by 
developing application libraries. 
Project 1041 and 1158 are seen as complementary: pro­
ject 1158 should provide a demonstrator project for the 
generation part of project 1041. Both projects will 
exchange information and deliverables to avoid dupli­
cation of work. 
'Development of an Efficient Functional Programming 
system for the Support of Prototyping' 
Proj. Ref. 891: B/85 
This project will develop a functional programming sys­
tem for the support of prototyping in an efficient manner. 
Investigation and definition of capabilities and uses of a 
functional programming system will be carried on the fol­
lowing areas: 
— rapid prototyping; 
— efficient code generation for functional programs to 
be processed on conventional sequential hardware: 
— programming in the large: 
— persistent object management for long term storage. 
A prototype system will be needed to demonstrate the 
approach. 
'Debugging and Specification of Ada Real Time Embed­
ded Systems (DESCA R TES)' 
Proj. Ref. 937 : B/85 
The project intends to assist developers of real-time 
embedded systems in Ada by investigating formal 
methods and by designing software and hardware tools. 
No C 332/28 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 12. 85 
Formal semantics and proof systems for real-time lan­
guages, with emphasis on composability will be investi­
gated. 
A specification language including real-time constraints 
and correctness preserving transformation will be 
designed. 
Traceability of transformation decisions in the context of 
real-time constraints and analysis tools will be developed. 
Quality, Reliability, Conformity testing and demonstrat­
ing 
'Reliability and Quality of European Software 
(REQUEST)' 
Proj. Ref 300: A/84 
The project aims at progress in quantification of software 
quality and reliability, thus enabling their specification, 
prediction, measurement and assurance. 
The areas of work include the following: 
identification and validation of metrics for the 'quality' 
concept, and construction of a quantitative model for its 
prediction; particular emphasis will be put on robust 
regression methods; 
— development of metrics and models for reliability 
prediction, both for software systems in general and 
for domains requiring ultra-high reliability (e.g. 
fault-tolerant systems); 
— investigation of the impact of using formal methods 
on reliability prediction and demonstration; 
— definition of a methodology for the certification of 
software products. 
To facilitate the development and validation of the 
metrics, the project has initiated a database for industrial 
data on software quality and reliability. The population 
is provided by various projects in Europe. 
2.1.3. Scope of Further Work 
Ongoing projects can be expected to produce a reason­
able coverage of the theoretical basis for methods and 
prototype tools to support more formal approaches to 
the design of large sequential systems and concurrent 
systems. The two very important topics of component 
reusability (component specification, verification, vali­
dation) and system performance and planning metrics 
are poorly covered currently. These two topics will be considered for inclusion in 
call(s) for proposals to be published in 1986. 
R&D Area 2.2: Management and Industrial Aspects 
The theories, methods and tools developed under sub-
area 2.1 will provide the raw material necessary for 
product development, build and maintenance, and for 
effective management of the development process 
itself, ie. development project management. The man­
agement methods and tools required to operate on this 
raw data are the main subject of this part of the 
Software Technology Workplan. 
2.2.1. , Topics 
The topics within this area are: 
Software production and maintenance support 
(short term solutions including those for special 
domains) 
Management of advanced software production 
(project management, product management, 
commercial security) 
2.2.2. Current Projects and Projects Under Negotiation 
Software Production and Maintenance Support 
'Software Production and Maintenance Management 
Support (SPMMS)' 
Proj. Ref. 282: A/84 
The project aims at designing and implementing a system 
supporting all management activities in the software life 
cycle. One of the most important requirements of the 
system is the adaptability to different management meth­
ods. The project plans to reach this objective by building a 
basic generic SPMMS Kernel which should be easily 
customizable, possibly using a rule based approach. 
Two customizations should undergo field trials, followed 
by the corresponding evaluation reports. 
Management of Advanced Software Production 
Integrated Project Management Systems' 
Proj. Ref. 814 and 938: A/85 
The two complementary projects have combined to 
give the above named project. The two parts are: 
20. 12.85 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 332/29 
'Project Integrated Management Systems (PIMS)' 
Proj. Ref. 814 
The project aims at developing a rule-based management 
system to be used as a consultant or as a training system. 
The prototype management consultant and management 
instructor will be evaluated through field trials. 2.3.1. Topics 
The topics within this area are: 
Common Tool Environment 
Evolution to more advanced environments 
Host/target issues 
'An Autonomous and Interactive Workbench to aid Soft­
ware Project Management' 
Proj. Ref. 938 
The objective of the project is the implementation of a 
prototype workbench with particular emphasis on plan­
ning, project control and decision support. The tools rely 
heavily on a common knowledge base. The system is 
intended to be UNIX V and PCTE portable. 
Projects 814 and 938 are seen as complementary: both 
are concerned with the production of integrated man­
agement tools, project 814 puts emphasis on the rule 
based approach, project 938 on the coupling with soft­
ware development tools. Both projects will exchange 
information and deliverables to avoid duplication of 
work. 
2.2.3. Scope for Further Work 
Previous calls for proposals have not resulted in a suffi­
cient number of good projects in this subarea. 
However, work is in progress on simple management 
tools and rule-based management systems. 
Work is required within this subarea to provide the 
methods and tools (eg. product control, commercial 
security issues) for the support of reusable software 
components, to complement the work identified in 
subarea 2.1. 2.3.2. Current Projects and Projects Under Negotiation 
Common Tool Environment 
'A Basis for a Portable Common Tool Environment 
(PCTE)' 
Proj. Ref. 32: A/83 
The project develops a Layer of basic functionalities for a 
portable common tool environment. This environment will 
be upwards compatible with UNIX V. 
The PCTE 'kernel' consists of: 
— basic mechanisms for process control, interprocess 
communication, as well as an Object Management 
System (OMS) based on an Entity-Relationship 
model, and supporting the subschema concept; 
— user interface mechanisms providing the concepts of 
User Agent (supporting windows, menus and other 
bitmap facilities, and a command language) and of 
Application Agent (providing a syntax-directed editor 
and the interface to UNIX tools); 
— distributed facilities (LAN interface and higher layer 
protocols). 
Two prototypes of the PCTE kernel are developed: a 
UNIX-Based version and an Ada-based one. 
Specifications have been published and are widely circu­
lated within the ESPRIT Community. 
The kernel will be evaluated by developing a few signifi­
cant tools, which include a Configuration Management 
System (CMS) and a Knowledge-Based Programmer's 
Assistant (KBPA). 
It is likely that small projects addressing the above top­
ics will be considered for inclusion in call(s) for propo­
sals published in 1986. 
R&D Area 2.3: Common Environment 
In this subarea the work on environments can cover a 
wide spectrum of topics: from integrated toolsets to 
method driven system development support, from 
application oriented support systems to environment 
generators. 'Automated Support for Software Engineering Technol­
ogy (ASSET—feasability study)' 
Proj. Ref. 267: B/84 
The objectives of this feasability study are to demonstrate 
the technical feasability of a proposal to develop 
advanced interactive graphics support for a range of 
methods covering each phase of the software lifecycle 
and based on the EPOS system. 
The outcome of this feasability study is summarized in a 
final report. 
No C 332/30 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 12.85 
PCTE-Added Common Tools (PA CT)' 
Proj.Ref. 951: A/85 
The project objective is the development and documenta­
tion of an initial toolset for PCTE (Proj. 32) with focus on 
those basic tools that a potential user would expect to 
find with a 'basic operating system'. This implementation 
of a layer of functionalities above PCTE basic mechan­
isms will provide the tool developer with a higher level 
interface to PCTE. The project will be conducted in close 
collaboration with the PCTE project. 
The prototype version may include among others: 
— tools for data definition and data query 
— tools for environment administration 
— document preparation tools 
— communication facilities (user-user and gateways) 
— support for C, Pascal, Lisp and Prolog 
— configuration management tools 
Evolution to more advanced environments 
'Generation of Interactive Programming Environments 
(GIPE)' 
Proj. Ref 348: B/84 
The main objective of the project is to investigate the pos­
sibilities of automatically generating interactive program­
ming environments from language specifications. 
Such an interactive environment will be generated from a 
complete syntactic and semantic characterization of the 
language to be used. 
Such syntactical and semantical characterization will be 
formally expressed in a Language Definition Formalism 
(LDF): inference rules-based approach and an algebraic 
approach are considered as the starting point for the 
design of the LDF. 
A prototype system will be designed and implemented, 
consisting basically of an LDF compiler, a file system 
and a user interface. 
'Development and integration of accurate operations in 
Numerical Data Processing (DIAMOND)' 
Proj. Ref. 1072: B/85 
The project aims at developing methods and tools allow­
ing accurate floating point arithmetic on computers, 
based on a mathematical theory of computer arithmetic 
in which all operations are defined by so-called semi-
morphisms. Such systematic theory of computer arithmetic aims at 
performing the basic arithmetic operations to maximum 
accuracy and providing sufficient control over the round­
ing process so as to ensure reliable error bounds. 
This project will pursue different approaches: embedding 
of convenient arithmetic notations into ADA and Pascal; 
A 1-techniques for formula transformation and symbolic 
manipulation; construction of methodological framework 
and knowledge based on numerical programming. 
'A Rule Based Approach to Information Systems 
Development' 
Proj. Ref. 928: B/85 
The project aims to achieve information systems which 
more accurately match the business requirements of 
users. Individual end user requirements are collected 
using a rule-based approach. These views are integrated 
into a single model which is subsequently used for appli­
cation generation. 
A prototype system will be developed consisting of: 
— a rule-based fact gathering and presentation system 
with different views for presentation and with valida­
tion tools; 
— a unified knowledge base (UKB) to store, aggregate 
and validate individual views; 
— an application generating system to realize applica­
tions from rule-based descriptions in the UKB, either 
by transformation or by interpretation of the rules. 
'Concepts and Components Reuse in knowledge-rich 
Environments' 
Proj. 974 and 1094: A/85 
The two complementary projects have combined to 
give the above named project. The two parts are: 
'A knowledge-base Environment for Software System 
Configuration reusing Components (KNOSOS)' 
Proj. Ref. 974 
The objective of this project is an environment supporting 
a method for components reuse during software configu­
ration. 
The user requirements for such an environment will be 
captured through studies conducted by industries familiar 
with large applications development. 
20. 12. 85 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 332/31 
A KNOSOS prototype will be constructed by integration 
and adaptation of a relational DBMS, a knowledge 
representation and manipulation tool, a software confi­
gurer, an automated configuration management system, 
and a common user interface with graphic capabilities. 
This prototype will be evaluated through field trials. 
'Support System for pragmatic reuse of software concepts 
(PRACTITIONER)' 
Proj. Ref 1094 
This project aims at methods to identify, isolate, docu­
ment, store and retrieve program concepts at the design 
level, i.e. design ideas, schemes for software subsystems 
and components. 
The potential of a linguistic approach as a basis for 
methods to analyse existing programs will be investigated. 
A prototype system supporting these methods will be 
evaluated by performing extensive experiments. 
Projects 974 and 1094 are seen as complementary: both 
projects aim at reusability, but with different emphasis: 
one project aims at new industrial practices allowing 
software configuration by reusing components; the 
other one tackles the design aspects of the problem, 
and looks for reusable concepts. 
Both projects will exchange information and delivera­
bles to avoid duplication of work. 
Host/Target issues 
At the moment there are no projects covering this area. 
2.3.3. Scope for Further Work 
The work started in 1983 on the Portable Common 
Tool Environment (PCTE) has provided the central 
core of the first generation environments work for the 
ESPRIT software technology programme. The inter­
faces defined by this project provide the necessary link 
for the integration of the tools being produced within 
the other subareas of the ST workplan. 
As a result of the supplementary call for proposals in 
1985 work on advanced environments and host/target 
issues is expected to be launched in 1986. 
The work supported within the subarea must provide 
the framework for the adoption of the integrated sup­
port environments into industry. It is important there­
fore to ensure that the ongoing work includes: (i) support of wide spectrum languages and inte­
grated mixed-mode environments (e.g. functional 
and logical programming techniques). 
(ii) development of environment generators for the 
more efficient support of advanced design meth­
ods. 
The above two topics are likely to be considered for 
inclusion in call(s) for proposals to be published in 
1986. 
R&D Area 2.4: Evaluation and Demonstration Projects 
To support the urgent need for fast technology transfer 
into industry it is particularly important that the results 
of the ESPRIT programme include quantitative and 
qualitative assessment of the costs of introduction into 
and the use of the integrated development environ­
ments, methods and tools in a controlled industrial 
environment. This sub-area will become increasingly 
important as the programme matures. 
2.4.1. Topics 
The topics to be included in this area are: 
Evaluation and demonstration projects for specific 
methods and/or techniques 
Evaluation and demonstration projects for integration 
issues 
2.4.2. Current Projects and Projects Under Negotiation 
Evaluation and demonstration projects for specific 
methods and/or techniques 
'Software Development Demonstrator through GRAS-
PIN Methods and Tools' 
Proj. Ref. 800: A/85 
This project will evaluate and demonstrate the suitability 
of the state of the art in software development technol­
ogy' for industrial purposes. The methodology and its 
basic set of support tools will be provided by the GRAS-
PIN project (PI 25). 
The evaluation and demonstrating of the GRASPIN 
methodology and tools will be done with respect to pro­
jects in two application fields: Computer Integrated 
Manufacturing and Office Automation. 
'Demonstration ofProspectra Methodology and System' 
Proj. Ref. 835: A/85 
The PROSPECTRA project will provide a rigorous meth­
odology for developing correct software and a 
No C 332/32 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 12. ,85 
comprehensive support system. The method and the tools 
represent a significant departure from the current practice 
in the industry. The proposed project will demonstrate the 
feasibility of applying this methodology and its support 
tools to real-life industrial projects. 
Evaluation and demonstration projects for integration 
issues 
At the moment there are no projects covering this area. 
2.4.3. Scope of Future Work 
The work underway currently is reaching the stage at 
which early prototype models are becoming available 
3.0. Introduction 
The ESPRIT workprogramme for AIP was developed 
to ensures support of advanced techniques for the pro­
cessing of information. It was recognized that the 
future requirements for information processing could 
not be met by the more traditional computational 
methods and hardware and software architectures, and 
therefore a programme was defined to cover: 
(i) knowledge engineering 
(ii) advanced signal processing including man-machine 
interfaces 
(iii) information and knowledge storage 
(iv) computer architectures 
The AIP sub-programme is, by definition, addressing 
primarily advanced research topics and therefore it is to 
be expected that the major topics listed above will need 
continued support in 1986. However, some encourag­
ing results have already been obtained, particularly in 
the early applications of knowledge engineering tech­
niques, and the opportunities to use the AIP Technolo­
gies within the other sub-areas of the ESPRIT pro­
gramme will become increasingly more evident. To 
assist in this technology transfer, greater emphasis will 
need to be given to the work on advanced system 
design methods and the focusing projects which will 
provide the qualitative and quantitative assessments 
necessary to support the movement of this technology 
into industry. and it is now feasible to begin the experimentation and 
evaluation process. 
This is a particularly important part of the ST workplan 
and it is likely that a number of small demonstrator 
projects together with a limited number of large 
demonstrator projects will be considered for inclusion 
in call(s) for proposals published in 1986. 
The objective of the demonstrator projects is to eval­
uate the methods, tools and development support envi­
ronments in an industrial environment. Funding for 
specific application developments will not be provided 
unless for evaluation purposes. 
The following themes will be given priority for new 
work called for in call(s) for proposals published in 
1986: 
(i) demonstrators (see section 3.1.3) 
(ii) multi-sensor systems (see section 3.2.3) 
(iii) integration of numeric and symbolic processing 
(see section 3.4.3) 
R&D Area 3.1: Knowledge Engineering 
This R&D area is concerned with the tools and tech­
nologies needed to develop Knowledge Based Systems. 
3.1.1. Topics 
The topic of knowledge engineering needs to be 
addressed by a balanced programme of theoretical 
studies and practical research and development pro­
jects, which will provide the methods and tools 
required to move this new engineering domain progres­
sively into commercial and industrial environments. 
The topics within this subarea are: 
— Knowledge Processing 
It comprises Knowledge acquisition, representa­
tion, manipulation including inference techniques 
and learning techniques. SUBPROGRAMME 3: 
ADVANCED INFORMATION PROCESSING (AIP) 
20. 12. 85 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 332/33 
— Dialogue and Natural Language including use of 
graphics 
— Development and Application of Knowledge 
Based Systems into the operational environments 
3.1.2. Current Projects and Projects Under Negotiation 
Knowledge Processing 
'Knowledge Integration & Management Systems' 
Proj.Ref. 112: A/83 
The project is designed to investigate key areas of infor­
mation processing such as knowledge representation, 
inferencing techniques and human computer interfaces. 
Emphasis is on a language for knowledge representation 
and management based on LISP and PROLOG ; an 
expert system suited to assist sales engineers in designing 
computer configurations ; an expert system serving office 
personnel to perform complex office procedures (e.g. 
resource planning). These complementary tasks focus on 
the development of hardware and software components to 
manage the problems resulting from the size and com­
plexity of large knowledge bases and the associated rea­
soning mechanisms. 
The wide potential applications are underpinned by an 
engineering approach where existing tools like OMEGA 
were taken apart to investigate the fundamental struc­
ture. 
A development system for the combination of knowledge 
sources and for communities of cooperating agents is cur­
rently in the implementation phase. Finally, a manipula­
tion system for large knowledge bases will be developed. 
As an example, an extended PROLOG Systems confi­
gurator had been built and is being used for systems 
assembly by some of the partners. 
'An Architecture for Interactive Problem Solving 
by Cooperating Data and Knowledge Bases' 
Proj.Ref. 316: A/84 
The main goal of the project is the design and implemen­
tation of an expert system architecture for advice-giving. 
The original goal of a user seeking advice may be ill-
defined and there may be a huge number of potential 
solutions for the user to choose from. The purpose of an 
automatic advisor is to help the user articulate his goals 
and then to generate candidate solutions for the user to 
accept or reject. The main computational problem to be 
solved is one of controlling the cooperative functioning of 
several sources of knowledge, which may use different representational schemes interpreted by different infer­
ence engines. A promising architecture appears to be one 
which considers each knowledge source to be an indepen­
dent agent, which only communicates with other such 
agents via a global data structure, under the supervision 
of a flexible scheduler capable of reasoning about con­
trol. In addition to architectural issues, the project 
emphasizes the importance of user modelling in man-
machine dialogue and the use of large databases to pro­
vide an advisor with comprehensive information. 
The concepts proposed have been validated in the early 
stages of the project, and work is underway on a financial 
investment adviser to be demonstrated in 1986. 
'Advanced Logical Programming Environments' 
Proj. Ref 363 + 973: B/84 
The objective is to produce a prototype Advanced Pro­
gramming Environment for industrial use. A number of 
areas will be addressed; programme execution on either 
parallel or classical architectures; program creation from 
a specification language; abstract data type specification 
and theorem proving if appropriate. 
To study and develop the tools necessary for an Environ­
ment for a Logical Programming language like 
PROLOG, the project merges several academic and 
industrial research groups working on this subject. It 
aims at improving the programmer's reliability by taking 
advantage firstly of the relational nature of Logical pro­
gramming which allows clear executable, but maybe inef­
ficient, specifications and, secondly, of its good behaviour 
relative to theorem proving which allows much better veri­
fication and validation possibilities. 
Integration of Symbolic and Numeric Learning 
Techniques' 
Proj.Ref. 1063 : B/85 
The objective of this work is to improve knowledge 
acquisition for KB Systems. The project will identify the 
best features from different approaches to knowledge 
acquisition, in order to improve the quality of 'noisy' 
data. 
The project will be based around existing software: 
MAIN - based around Michalski's INDUCE and AQ11, 
a symbolic learner; AGAPE and AGAPE-C which use 
theorem proving techniques and taxonomies of 
No C 332/34 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 12. 85 
descriptors of example sets; and NEDDIE which is an 
extended version of Quinlan's ID3, which uses numerical 
manipulation to constrain its search space. 
An example application will be demonstrated in 1987 
showing integrated learning of symbolic and numerical 
methods. 
See also Proj. Ref. 107 described under 3.3. 
Dialogue and Natural Language 
'ACORD: Construction and Interrogation of Knowledge 
Bases Using Natural Language Text and Graphics' 
Proj. Ref. 393: A/84 
The ACORD project focusses on a trilingual (French, 
German and English) system for the automatic construc­
tion of a knowledge base output of a natural language 
text and a retrieval and manipulation system aimed at 
casual users. The knowledge base will be built from docu­
ments combining text and graphics (encyclopedia or tech­
nical type) and will be based on PROLOG. The deep 
representation will be accessible from several components 
of the systems interface. The analysis of texts will be 
based on recent results in theoretical linguistics (discourse 
representation theory and functional grammars). 
The knowledge representation will be based on recent 
results informal semantics and on logical theory of data 
bases. 
To support dialogue, the system will select appropriate 
presentation of output, text or graphics, and identify 
relevant information for output. The system interface will 
feature a symbiotic interplay of graphics and natural 
language. 
'Communication Failure in Dialogue : Techniques for 
Detection and Repair' 
Proj. Ref 527.-B/84 
The aim of this project is the development of a robust and 
portable natural-language interface to a relational data­
base system. 
The initial stages of the project involve the study of 
human dialogues in a simulated database-query environ­
ment, including recovery from various types of communi­
cation failure. From an analysis of these dialogues a 
formal model of the dialogue process will be developed. 
The formal model will serve as a basis for a computer 
implementation of an English and Italian natural-lan­guage front-end to a students' records database. An 
important element of the implementation will be the use 
of non-verbal systems (e.g., graphics, pointing, icons) in 
roles analogous to the non-verbal components of human 
dialogues. 
The robust dialogue component of the project has poten­
tial applications outside the database domain. Elements 
of it can be used in the development of a front-end to 
expert systems or for information retrieval in an office 
environment. 
'Graphics and Knowledge Based Dialogue for Dynamic 
Systems' 
Proj. Ref. 857: A/85 
This project will develop improved user/system interfaces 
for dynamic large-scale industrial control systems, by the 
design of intelligent graphics and knowledge base 
dialogue systems. 
Three cooperating knowledge processing expert systems 
will be built, that will give the operator of a supervision 
and control (S&C) system intelligent support in diagnos­
ing and recovering from faults, and will provide an intelli­
gent graphics interface. 
A further aim of the project is to assemble different KBS 
Demonstrators for use in 'hard-tech' industrial environ­
ments and to identify appropriate metrication aspects and 
methods. 
The project will develop expertise by building a set of dia­
logue design and specification tools for use in solving 
problems identified during a survey of users of S&C 
systems. These tools will then be used and tested through­
out the project, to build these systems. 
The project attempts to identify metrics which are of 
significance, and methods for their assessment. 
See also Proj. Ref. 107, 311 described under 3.3 and 
Proj. Ref. 1015 described under 3.6. 
Development and Application of Knowledge Based Sys­
tems 
'Expert System Builder' 
Proj. Ref. 96: A/83 
The aim of the project is to provide a system enabling 
expert systems to be developed and tested by personnel 
inexperienced in artificial intelligence. A ring structured 
model has been identified for the system to allow progres­
sive development and extension of the facilities within the 
individual layers, with the inner rings being completely 
independent of the domain. The test system provides the 
tool set for the upper layers, with the capability for later 
20. 12.85 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 332/35 
extensions. A particular domain has been chosen, that of 
diagnosis of electronic systems, because of its increasing 
demand in equipment and manufacturing, and labour 
intensiveness of the methods presently employed. 
Implementation of the tools on symbolic processors has 
commenced. Portability of the eventual software and the 
independance from domain specific characteristics are 
the main design factors. The first demonstrations ran 
successfully in September 1984. 
'Time Dependency and System Modelling in KBS's 
Design for Industrial Process Applications' 
Proj. Ref 256: B/84 
The project addresses some of the research topics con­
nected with the design of KBS's that have to closely inter­
act with complex processes (e.g. industrial diagnosis, 
plant monitoring, process control, etc.), thus being able to 
deal with a type of reasoning where time dependency is 
crucial and where there is a specific need for representing 
and using qualitative models of physical systems. 
A detailed study at the level of system design (midway 
between pure speculation and prototyping) is to assess the 
state of the art and to define of effective architectures 
and knowledge representation paradigms. 
'Knowledge Representation and Inference Techniques in 
Industrial Control' 
Proj. Ref. 387: A/84 
The aim of the project is to design and implement an 
Expert System to assist maintenance, fault diagnosis, 
optimization of data flows, and control in an industrial 
process-control environment of very high complexity. 
Therefore the Expert Control System must take the time-
dependency into account, and capturing of input data 
must be accomplished automatically and intelligently. 
To overcome complexity barriers in such devices, a 
machine learning capability is included. 
Advances over existing Control Systems lie in making 
process-control more secure by assisting the operator in 
his decisions and by reducing the drop-out rate of the 
controlling devices. 
'Knowledge Based Assistant for Electromyography' 
Proj. Ref. 599: B/84 
The aim of the project is to develop a knowledge based 
assistant to support physicians in all stages of an electro­myographic (EMG) examination of patients with neurol­
ogical disease. In the short term expert assistance will be 
implemented on two separate, well-defined and important 
aspects of the EMG problem : in the longer term a more 
ambitious system will be developed to provide more com­
prehensive assistance to the physician. The first system 
will be demonstrated in 1986 to exemplify the intercon­
nect of signal acquisition, knowledge based systems and 
medical expertise. 
Design, Experimentation of a KBS Architecture and 
Tool Kit for Real Time Process Control Applications' 
Proj. Ref 820 + 865 +1096: A/85 
This project deals with KBS tools for real time applica­
tions. The first phase concerns the study of the current 
state of the art in KBS for process applications. The 
second phase is a design and implementation of a proto­
type KBS toolkit. The toolkit developed will offer a con­
crete working environment for KBS designers in a com­
plex domain. 
The work will concentrate on one aspect such as CAD 
systems. 
The project will investigate how the knowledge structure 
of multilevel hierarchical real-time industrial control 
systems may be partitioned through well-defined abstraction 
levels which will allow separation of control (procedural) 
knowledge from descriptive (declarative) knowledge. It 
will also define metrication techniques which will be eval­
uated in conjunction with the building of demonstrators. 
3.1.3. Scope for Further Work 
Current projects provide a reasonable coverage of the 
basic knowledge engineering techniques. The applica­
tion of knowledge-based systems (KBS) into the opera­
tional environment is becoming increasingly important. 
Small projects addressing the demonstration of KBS 
techniques and tools in the industrial environment are 
likely to be considered for inclusion in the call(s) for 
proposals published in 1986. The objective of the 
demonstrator projects is to evaluate the methods, tools 
and development support environments in an indus­
trial environment. Funding for specific application 
developments will not be provided unless for evalua­
tion purposes. 
R&D Area 3.2: Advanced Signal Processing including 
Man-Machine Interfaces 
Work under this part of the AIP sub-programme is con­
cerned with the development of methods and tech­
niques to enable the control of computer-based 
No C 332/36 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 12. 85 
systems, including through appropriate man-machine 
interfaces. The signal processing element needs to be 
able to accept a wide range of signals, and be capable 
of information extraction, interpretation for the support 
of decision making in real-time. 
3.2.1. Topics 
The topics within this area are: 
— Image Processing (2-dimensional and 3-dimen-
sional images, depth and motion analysis and pic­
ture synthesis) 
— Speech recognition and understanding (in parti­
cular continuous speech input and speaker 
independence) 
— Multi-sensor signal processing i.e. the combination 
of a number of separate input signals into a single 
interpretation of the current status of the opera­
tional environment where the signals are derived 
from vision, sound, touch, sensors, etc. 
3.2.2. Current Projects and Projects under Negotiation 
Image Processing 
'Advanced Algorithms and Architectures for Signal 
processing' 
Proj. Ref. 26: A/83 
Main objective of the project is to develop a real time sig­
nal processing system that is designed to be compatible 
between first (i.e. feature extraction) and successive (i.e. 
recognition and understanding) levels of computing func­
tions. The work has therefore been planned to run in 
three parallel areas : speech analysis, image analysis, sig­
nal recognition and understanding. 
For image processing, the approach consists of extracting 
and manipulating the information that is contained 
within the image. 
This information may be described either in terms of 
structures such as edges, shapes, degrees of movement 
and textures, or in term of statistical constructs. Early 
achievements include an edge detector based on texture 
changes and an optimal shape interpolation technique 
based on dynamic programming. The initial application 
target is the development of a set of tools, both algo­
rithmic and hardware, for this level, of processing. Appli­
cations involving medical imagery and industrial inspec­
tion will be used to test these tools and to study architec­
tural and implementation issues. 'A Study of Real-time Perspective Synthesis' 
Proj. Ref. 411: A/84 
The purpose of this R&D work is to study picture syn­
thesis based on a very compact 20 Gigabits sequential/ 
random read only memory and high speed processors 
which can supply picture synthesis techniques in real time. 
The main work will be to study the feasibility of 35 mm 
film for data storage and to design the interface hard­
ware and software techniques which are required for the 
completion of an experimental system. In order to iden­
tify desired design features, the picture synthesis will be 
used on a 3D display mix of computer graphics and 
terrain images for cockpit instrumentation. 
Initial results of the study have been established for a 
variety of recording and coding schemes, reading tech­
niques and film substrates. 
This project has cross-references to ESPRIT area 3.3 
'Information and Knowledge Storage'. 
'Image and Movement Understanding' 
Proj. Ref 419: B/84 
The proposed research is directed to understand the com­
putational bases of vision and movement, with particular 
reference to scene understanding and cursive script 
understanding. With regard to scene understanding 
(based on stereo pairs or multiple views of pictorial 
images as input to the system) the project is focussed on 
the interface between the 'early stages' of computation, 
which provide rich but ambiguous descriptions in terms of 
low-level features, and the 'knowledge-based' processing, 
which generates descriptions of 3D organization of the 
visual world compatible with the properties of the physical 
world. With regard to cursive script, we think that recog­
nition is still afar goal. Basic knowledge needs still to be 
acquired about the mapping from linguistic material to 
hand trajectories. The goal of the project is to understand 
the writing process more than recognize it. Furthermore, 
we address the cognitive modeling aspect with the hypo­
thesis that interfacing it with a signal processing stage is 
essentially common to vision and movement. 
Real time generation and display of the 2.5 D sketch for 
moving scenes' 
Proj. Ref 532: B/84 
The project will develop and implement a demonstrator 
prototype of an imaging system which is capable of prod­
ucing a form of 2.5 D sketch directly. This sketch, in 
20. 12.85 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 332/37 
which image intensity will be related to range, will be in 
one-to-one pixel correspondence with an illumination 
intensity representation generated simultaneously. 
Statistical operations performed on successive range 
estimates should permit a marked improvement over the 
single measure resolution. 
'Integrated Optic Technologies for Real Time Wideband 
Optical Signal Processing 
Proj. Ref 866: B/85 
The scope of this project is to develop an integrated 
acousto-optical device including various optical elements 
as well as the radiation source and suitable detectors for 
one-dimensional signal processing in the 0.1-10 GHz 
range. Applications for such a device range from super-
fast LAN connections to (1-D) correlation in radar pro­
cessing systems (for dynamic clutter rejection). The device 
is to be rugged and compact. 
'External Interface for Processing of 3-D Holographies 
Images for A nalysis and Control' 
Proj. Ref. 898: B/85 
The aim of the project is the development of an external 
interface system, that links physically generated 3-D 
images to inspection and analysis procedures. While this 
has to be a general and flexible system, it is used in this 
project for holographic interferograms and X-ray 
radiographs for applications in areas such as real time 
testing and inspection and 3-D measurement. For this 
task, optical and electronic methods have to be combined 
in order to extract the relevant information from multiple 
3-D images. A further aim of the project is the automa­
tion of the holographic interferometry and the X-ray 
radioscopy for on-line testing in the manufacturing pro­
cess. 
'Depth and Motion Analysis' 
Proj. Ref. 940: A/85 
The objective of this project is to solve a mathematical 
and theoretical problem underlying depth and motion 
analysis at the level of hardware implementation. Proto­
types of a vision system will be constructed, which will be 
able to guide a mobile vehicle, or arms of industrial 
robots, during obstacle avoidance and arm manipulation. 
The accomplishment of this project is relevant to robotics, 
factory automation and aerospace technology. The tasks of this project consist not only of theoretical studies for 
the reconstruction of 3 D structure and determination of 
motion parameters, but also in the design and prototyp­
ing of a vision system as well as its implementation in 
VLSI. 
'2-D Coherent Optical Dynamic Processor' 
Proj. Ref. 1035: B/85 
The purpose of the project is to develop and implement an 
optical correlator for pattern recognition based on the 
most recent technological developments. The feasibility of 
parallel optical signal processing is demonstrated by 
using a spatial light modulator (electrically and/or opti­
cally), a solid state laser, and non linear components 
based on the Four Wave Mixing (FWM) process, allow­
ing real time modification of the correlation function. By 
improving the spatial light modulator and FWM compo­
nents technology, a corresponding improvement in 
processor performance is demonstrated, leading ulti­
mately to a resolution of 1 200 x 1 200 pixels in parallel 
at a standard TV frame rate. 
Speech Recognition and Understanding 
'Advanced Algorithms and Architectures for Signal 
Processing' 
Proj. Ref 26: A/83 
With respect to speech the target will be to extend current 
state of the art techniques for recognition. This will be 
achieved by combining the complementary approaches of 
automatic classification techniques. Hidden Markov 
Models, and feature extraction. The resulting system will 
be tested using a vocabulary in the order of 1 000 words 
with constrained syntax and using continuous speech. 
Subsequent work will consist both of improvement to the 
system and its constituent techniques and of interfacing 
this system to higher levels of recognition and under­
standing. A front end for diphones recognition was 
demonstrated in 1984. 
Multisensor Signal Processing 
At present no project addresses this topic. 
3.2.3. Scope for Further Work 
Current projects provide a reasonable coverage of 
systems for feature extraction. The more complex 
No C 332/38 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 12. 85 
problems of multi-sensor systems need to be given a 
higher priority for future work. approaches and, eventually, of finding out criteria in 
favour of the adoption of one of them, in order to start 
the design of a system embodying the selected approach. 
It is likely that a large project in this area will be con­
sidered for inclusion in call(s) for proposals published 
in 1986. 
'Advanced Knowledge Base Management System' 
R & D 3.3 Area: Information and Knowledge Storage 
Effective knowledge based systems will need to be able 
to access information and knowledge in the most time-
efficient manner, and this data will need to be stored in 
the most space-efficient manner. 
3.3.1. Topics 
The topics within this area are: 
— Definition and Implementation of new Data/ 
Knowledge base building mechanisms. They are 
required to achieve acceptable space-time trade­
offs for the advanced knowledge-based systems. 
— New Data/Knowledge base accesses 
— New physical devices 
3.3.2. Current Projects and Projects under Negotiation 
Definition and Implementation of New Data / Know­
ledge Base Building Mechanisms. 
'Advanced Data and Knowledge Management Systems' 
Proj.Ref. 311: A/84 
The project aims at the definition of an advanced system 
which allows an intelligent and efficient management of 
large amounts of information stored in it. The following 
topics will be addressed: 
1. Information and knowledge storage organisation for 
deduction and retrieval of facts from a specific 
domain using possibly incomplete and inexact know­
ledge about the domain (and related meta-know-
ledge). 
2. Definition of optimisation techniques at the domain 
independent level as well as at the domain dependent 
level for efficient access. 
3. A natural language interpreter. Proj. Ref 530 : A/84 
The project studies and develops a prototype of KBMS, 
obtained by integrating the data base technology with an 
inference component, based on logic programming tech­
nology. Different integration mechanisms and different 
strategies for knowledge partitioning are evaluated with 
respect to performance and reusability of existing data 
bases. Options using distributed DBMS and/or defining 
the distributed architecture at the inference component 
level will be considered and a structure will be chosen for 
prototyping. The possibility of using the data base tech­
nology to store the deductive knowledge will also be 
studied as a possible solution for very large knowledge-
based systems. The project will develop tools (typically 
concerned with various user interfaces) for building and 
using knowledge-based systems. 
'Next Generation Integrated Data Base and Knowledge 
Base Management System' 
Proj. Ref. 1005 
Proj.Ref. 1117 
Proj. Ref. 1133 A/85 
The role of this composite project is to design and imple­
ment a simulator for an advanced Integrated DB and 
KBMS by considering results of earlier ESPRIT projects 
as well as new developments outside ESPRIT. This will 
include access to non-integrated and heterogeneous data 
and knowledge bases, various forms of knowledge repre­
sentations and programming. The system will also pro­
vide a user-friendly interaction. Application areas will be 
studied and chosen for a simulation. Further features of 
this project are: study of parallel architecture for storage 
and processing, and the design of suitable inference 
machines. 
The three individual projects are: 
Proj. Ref. 1005: B/85. 'Next Generation Data Base 
Management System — MUST which is concerned with 
preliminary phases in the development of the next genera­
tion databases management system. 
The project will also address issues related to logic 
programming, with the goal of comparing the two Proj. Ref. 1133: B/85. 'Advanced Model for Integration 
of DB and KB Management Systems' which aims at the 
feasibility of integrating DB and KBMS. 
20. 12.85 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 332/39 
Proj. Ref 1117: B/85. 'Knowledge Based User Friendly 
System for the Utilisation of Information Bases' which is 
aimed at a KBS to provide support for the access and use 
of information from an information base. 
New Data / Knowledge accesses 
'A Logic-oriented Approach to Knowledge and Data 
Bases Supporting Natural User Interaction' 
Proj.Ref 107: A/83 
A Logic Oriented Approach to Knowledge and Data 
Bases, supporting Natural User Interaction (LOKI) 
applies logic programming in a number of novel ways, to 
systems software and to knowledge-based applications. 
The systems software work is all based on a new Prolog, 
Special tools allowing access to databases at source level 
by a variety of Prolog-type languages. These tools will 
form the implementation language for a high-level know­
ledge representation formalism. A conceptual modelling 
language (CML) will be developed for general real world 
application, based on frames definable within predicate 
calculus. 
One use of CML will be to store the knowledge of project 
management required by one of the project's two applica­
tion systems with a German and English front-end. 
Another application is the development of an expert sys­
tem that models some of the knowledge used in aircraft 
design. This is called ADROIT, and a first prototype, 
restricted to wing design, is already complete. 
'Intelligent Help for Information System Users' 
Proj. Ref 280: B/84 
The project proposes to investigate approaches towards 
helping users of information systems learn optimally to 
exploit the functions of those information systems. These 
approaches will be operationally implemented in the form 
of a prototype HELP system to provide guidelines, 
instructions and explanations to user requests for inform­
ation systems facilities. A set of UNIX utilities have 
been targetted, and based on this a demonstration of a 
structural help system was given in 1985. 
'Knowledge Based User Friendly Interfaces for the utilis­
ation of Information Bases' 
Proj. Ref. 641: B/84 
The project defines a knowledge-based system to provide 
user-friendly interfaces to existing and new databases and knowledge bases. The schemata of existing data­
bases will be described by semantic data models. 
The work of the first year study consists of: 
— Design of a standard interface to heterogeneous 
! distributed databases based on a conceptual data 
model; 
— Development of an interaction methodology between 
the user and the system based on logical indepen­
dence; 
— Design of an advanced application environment for 
end-users concerned with modelling some reality, 
handling existing data and knowledge and creating 
solutions to standard or unexpected problems. 
'High Densities Mass Storage Memories for Knowledge 
and Information Storage' 
Proj. Ref. 957: A/85 
This project is to develop further techniques associated 
with storage technology, covering perpendicular recording 
on floppy and rigid discs, and magneto-optical recording. 
In addition to the development of basic components to 
support these technologies, work will be carried out into 
defining the internal coding of the data, 'local intellig­
ence' characteristics of the storage device and system 
requirements using the devices. 
The three-year objectives of this project include proto­
types for perpendicular magnetic recording on floppy and 
hard disks with densities of about 100 000 fci and the pre­
sentation of a thermomagnetic disc drive with at least 
15 000 fci and 150 ms access time. 
3.3.3. Scope for further work 
Current projects provide a reasonable coverage of this 
subarea. 
It is unlikely that this area will be considered for 
inclusion in call(s) for proposals published in 1986. 
R & D 3.4 Area: Computer Architectures 
This R&D area investigates the potential for new 
forms of computer architectures. 
3.4.1. Topics 
The topics within this subarea are: 
No C 332/40 Official Journal of the European Communities 20.12.85 
— Development of new communication mechanisms 
This will allow greater connectivity of machines 
supporting current architectures. 
— Development of non-von-Neumann machine 
architectures 
— Development of architectures for the integration of 
numeric and symbolic processing 
— Advanced Machine Architectures for highly con­
current processing. 
The topic of advanced machine architectures necessar­
ily includes consideration of machine performance, 
reliability and availability (hardware and software 
aspects) and the development of appropriate develop­
ment support environments. The work will promote 
advances in basic hardware and software technology by 
providing early indication of the requirements from 
work in the microelectronics and software areas with 
respect to advance components, and will also provide 
fruitful applications areas for these technologies, e.g. 
architectures for optical computing. 
Advances in computer system design is a fundamental 
prerequisite of successful realization of many of the 
targets for the development of information technology. 
3.4.2. Current projects and projects under negotiation 
Development of new communication mechanisms. 
'The Connection Machine: a Dependable Open Distri­
buted System Architecture' 
Proj. Ref. 818: B/85 
This project will look at the basic problems of an OSI 
LAN architecture with fault tolerance as a primary 
requirement. 
'Integrated Environment for Reliable Systems' 
Proj. Ref 874: B/85 
The one year period will be used to clearly specify each 
part of their overall tern design (architecture, host 
software, interconnection) with reliability and fault toler­
ance functionality. 
Development of non von-Neumann machines 
architectures 
'Parallel Architectures and Languages for AIP — 
A VLSI Directed Approach' 
Proj. Ref 415 + 313: A/84 
This project aims to investigate the different non-von-
Neuman architectures previously described and implement some of them in systems nearer to the com­
mercial sphere. The prime objective is to reduce the exe­
cution times required by A.I. applications by a substan­
tial factor. Concurrency will be achieved through a large 
number of identical processing elements implemented in 
VLSI. Ideally, a concurrent machine should support all 
three programming styles (object oriented, functional and 
logic) which will allow the full exploitation of concur­
rency, but the principles upon which such a machine could 
be based are not yet fully understood. All three styles will 
be explored through studies into machines which support 
each programming style separately, and through common 
working groups which will explore several areas of 
general relevance. 
All subprojects are based on messages passing between 
identical units, here called PCMs, consisting of communi­
cation hardware, processing hardware and local memory. 
In addition to the subprojects and working groups, an 
application study group will be formed to select applica­
tions with which the various styles may be evaluated and 
their suitability for various fields of application estab­
lished. 
'Parallel Associative Development Machine as a Vehicle 
for A.I.' 
Proj. Ref. 967+1106: A/85 
Time critical applications, such as 'real time' speech and 
image understanding need suitable high-performance 
computer systems. 
This project is intended to address this requirement by the 
construction of a ' common development machine 
(PA DMA VA TI). The proposed machine architecture will 
be based on an array of computational nodes each 
containing a high performance microprocessor, memory 
and communication interfaces. The programming envi­
ronment will be based on standard Prolog and Lisp with 
extensions to support parallel execution. The resulting 
hardware architecture and software system will be tested 
by implementing experimental, computationally intensive 
tasks from the fields of natural language, speech and 
image understanding on the completed machine. 
Development of architectures for integration of numeric 
and symbolic processing. 
At present no project addresses this topic. 
Advance Machine Architectures for highly concurrent 
processing. 
'Message Passing Architectures and Description Systems' 
Proj. Ref. 440: B/84 
The project will build three levels of tools for the develop­
ment of Expert systems: 
20. 12. 85 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 332/41 
— Message passing languages 
— Description languages for knowledge representation 
— Reasoning and strategy programming 
The project will develop techniques for implementing 
message passing languages that will exploit new highly 
parallel architectures. 
The techniques will cover issues of run-time support like 
allocation, migration, garbage-collection and persistency 
of actors. A description system will be developed to sup­
port the basic mechanisms of knowledge representation: 
conceptual hierarchies, inheritance, attributions. 
To perform reasoning on the description system, rather 
than providing a fixed strategy, primitives and constructs 
will be developed that will allow to programme deductive 
strategies tailored to specific applications. Strategy 
execution Will be performed concurrently by a large num­
ber of actors each exploring a small portion of the know­
ledge base. 
At the end of the project, there will be: 
1) a solid implementation of message passing; 
2) techniques for exploiting specialized concurrent hard­
ware to implement actors efficiently; 
3) a package of knowledge representation primitives, 
and 
4) a description system and related interaction tools; 
with applications ranging across the KBS and MMI 
spheres. 
'Development and Application of a Low-Cost High Per­
formance Multi-Processor Machines' 
Proj. Ref 1085: A/85 
The goal of this project is to develop a prototype high per­
formance flexible multiprocessor computer. A computa­
tion rate of 500 million floating point operations per 
second will be achieved by concurrent operation of a large 
number of specially developed VLSI floating point pro­
cessors. The machine will be implemented as a regular 
array of 'super-nodes' with each node consisting of typi­
cally 20 processors. A configurable interconnection stra­
tegy in each node, using a switching network to be devel­
oped in this project, will provide a flexible architecture 
suitable for a wide range of scientific and engineering 
problems. 
It is proposed to demonstrate the utility of the configura­
ble architecture, both for use as a single-user work station 
(operating with a single super-node) and as the basis for 
a large, powerful array of super-nodes, by mounting a 
range of application software. These will range over CAD 
for VLSI, signal-processing, large-scale modelling and 
simulation. A prototype will be built by the end of 1987, 
and a machine will exist by the end of1988. 3.4.3. Scope for Further Work 
Current projects provide a reasonable coverage of all 
topics included in this except for the integration of 
symbolic and numeric processing. 
It is likely that a large project in this area will be con­
sidered for inclusion in call(s) for proposals published 
in 1986. 
R & D 3.5 Area: Design and System Aspects 
3.5.1. Topics 
The definition of lifecycle models for advanced infor­
mation processing systems will be an evolving activity 
which will need to respond to the progress being made 
in the various sub-areas of this programme. It is impor­
tant to ensure that this topic is fully integrated with the 
related work in the Software Technology programme so 
that a practical evolutionary strategy for both the inclu­
sion of new development methods based on AIP tech­
niques into development support environments and the 
production of development support environments for 
the production of advanced information processing 
systems. 
3.5.2. Current Projects and Projects under Negotiation 
'Design of Techniques and Tools to aid in the Analysis 
and Design of Knowledge Based Systems' 
Proj. Ref. 12/304: A/83 
This was a pilot project that investigated the types of 
tools and design techniques necessary for the analysis, 
design, implementation and testing of Knowledge Based 
Systems. The purpose was to specify the techniques which 
will aid in the building expert system. In particular valuable 
work was done, and a good insight was made into ana­
lysing the process of Knowledge Acquisition. The findings 
of the project were used as a basis for the proposal of pro­
ject Ref. 1098. 
'A Methodology for the Development of KBS' 
Proj. Ref. 1098: A/85 
The prime purpose of this project is to assist the transfer 
of Knowledge Based Systems technology into commercial 
No C 332/42 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 12. 85 
use by providing methodological guidance for the 
development process. It is believed that Knowledge Based 
Systems development can be treated as a particular case 
of software engineering and that the same requirements 
must be placed on the development of Knowledge Based 
Sytems as on other types of software. In short KBS must 
be produced to specification and to acceptable standards 
by a controllable process. 
3.5.3. Scope for Further Work 
At the current time the single project underway in this 
area together with the work in subprogramme software 
technology is considered to be sufficient. 
It is unlikely that this area will be considered for inclu­
sion in call(s) for proposals published in 1986. 
R & D 3.6 Area: Focussing Projects 
3.6.1. Topics 
The diverse but inter-related nature of the topics cov­
ered by advanced information processing requires that 
the basic R&D programme be supported by a mechanism 
for the integration of results from the various projects. 
Future information technology systems will need the 
successful integration of the results from the basic tech­
nology R&D programmes and therefore the vehicle of 
focusing projects within the AIP programme will 
become increasingly more important as the programme 
matures. 
4.0. Introduction 
Information is an important instrument of competition. 
This concept is now widely recognised. Office Systems 
provide a major vehicle through which information can 
be applied as an aid to navigation through the present 3.6.2. Current Projects and Projects Under Negotiation 
'A Case Study for Satellite Data — AR TS-IP' 
Proj. Ref 867: /85 
This project is aimed at real-time image processing using 
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images for remote 
sensing as a test-bed. 
'Integration ofAI, Vocal I/O and NL Dialogue — 
Application to Directory Services (PALABRE)' 
Proj. Ref. 1015: /85 
This project aims to design and implement a question-
answering system for easy access to, and modification of 
an information base, integrating systems of natural lan­
guage, speech recognition, dialogue modelling and know­
ledge based techniques. 
'Shipboard Installation of Knowledge-Based Systems 
Conceptual Design' 
Proj. Ref. 1074: /85 
This project is aimed at concepts for the utilisation of 
advanced KBS on ships, and will develop systems that 
allow ships complement to reach economic levels, allow­
ing flagging of ships by Member States to continue, stop­
ping the drift to flags of convenience and thus maintain­
ing safety and performance standards. 
3.6.3. Scope for Further Work 
The definition phases of three focusing projects are 
currently in progress. The continued support of these 
projects will be reviewed in the autumn of 1986. 
turbulent changes in business, technology, commerce 
and government. 
While the potential contribution of information tech­
nology to improve effectiveness can be easily recog­
nised, the delivery of solutions to the information SUBPROGRAMME 4: 
OFFICE SYSTEMS 
20. 12.85. Official Journal of the European Communities No C 332/43 
problem areas is an entirely different matter. The prob­
lems are 'fuzzy' and frequently the solution processes 
appear to be artistic rather than scientific. The users of 
information frequently have little or no knowledge of 
the technological content and necessary technical 
processes that are involved in processing information. 
The majority of users require solutions and not prod­
ucts. These solutions have to be reasonably complete 
and this implies that integrated systems must be prov­
ided, not only in the sense of the interrelationship of 
the technical components (both hardware and soft­
ware) but also in terms of the functions that these 
components perform as a support to the day-to-day 
operations, planning and strategy development of 
organizations. 
The challenges facing Office Systems development 
include: 
— Providing integrated information system architec­
tures and scenarios for their implementation, that 
will alow rapid, economic and reliable adaptation 
to the changing needs of a great variety of private 
and public enterprises. 
— Understanding and supporting the non-determinis­
tic tasks of a wide range of office workers and not 
just providing a technological update of traditional 
and limited office functions. 
— Achieving major improvements in human-system 
interfaces that realistically allow effective use of 
office systems by a wide range of office workers. 
— The development of solution oriented approaches 
to office problems. Delivering product elements 
and some services, and expecting the user to create 
the total own solution cannot continue. 
The key European opportunity relates to the develop­
ment of system solutions. The implications of Euro­
pean requirements must be that these solutions have an 
adaptability, flexibility and inbuilt interworking capa­
bility that will be a real strength outside Europe. This 
will only be true if the application of technology 
reflects a degree of user sensitivity in advance of our 
major competitors. 
Research work in the field of Office Systems can be 
characterized as follows: on the basis of fundamental 
and methodological developments in VLSI, software 
technology, and knowledge representation and some 
other fields, integrated and applied system solutions 
are developed which take into consideration user 
requirements and foreseeable evolutions in the tech­
nical, social and economical field. 
The Office Systems programme provides the key ele­
ments and concepts that mark the development from classical data processing to integrated information pro­
cessing in administrations and industrial and service 
enterprises, by which the future work environment will 
be characterized. For that purpose, systems architec­
tures, functional modules and communication net­
works with standardized interfaces are necessary. 
In developing these systems, which are essential for the 
survival of our industrial companies, human and social 
factors have to be considered in the early stages of 
planning. Only in this way can we ensure that the sys­
tems will be accepted later on by the users and that 
economic expectation will also be met. 
Taking into account the above mentioned integrated 
approach, the subprogramme has been divided into 
five research areas. The aims are: 
Office system science and human factors (4.1) 
(a) To analyze current and predicted office activities to 
determine how information technology might be 
applied to improve the effectiveness of office work 
and organization and of the enterprise as a whole. 
Besides automation of various functions and the 
use of knowledge management methods, this 
means better support particularly for clerks, profes­
sional and managerial staff in executing their judge­
mental tasks. 
(b) To improve understanding of human, social and 
cultural factors in the office and to ensure high per­
formance of users when interacting with the sys­
tems, whilst at the same time offering optimal 
working conditions and ensuring adequate organ­
ization and individual acceptance. 
Advanced workstations and human-machine interfaces 
(4.2) 
To establish major new human-machine interface tech­
nologies, peripheral technologies and document repre­
sentation technologies and information manipulation 
relevant to the development of office workstations for 
use in advanced office systems. 
Communication systems (4.3) 
To create the basic technologies required for advanced 
office communication systems including technical fun­
damentals in communication systems architecture, opt­
ical technologies as a particularly significant technol­
ogy, the management of resources connected by net­
works, and system aspects of value added services. 
Advanced multi-media information storage and 
retrieval systems (4.4) 
No C 332/44 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 12.85 
To acquire the system and applications expertise 
related to storage and retrieval of all forms of office 
information in electronic storage systems in a user 
organization in an adequate way. 
Integrated office information systems (4.5) 
To create flexible, reliable and economical total infor­
mation system architectures and implementation 
scenarios, and to check the validity of the total infor­
mation concepts in environments that are realistic and 
allow quantitive evaluation. 
Priority will be given to integration projects especially 
in area 4.5. 
R&D area 4.1: Office Systems Science and Human Fac­
tors 
This research programme has been devised to give a 
better understanding of the office environment. Offices 
are the 'nervous system' of any enterprise. These must 
be organized, staffed and equipped for effective and 
efficient operation, and interfaced with other branches 
of the enterprise (such as research laboratories and 
manufacturing) and the external environment. 
At present the understanding of this field is patchy. 
There is no formal science of office automation as 
there is for production automation. This programme, 
however, makes possible coherent approaches to on the 
problems, ranging from empirical studies to consistent 
operational classifications and definition of computer-
based analysis and design tools. 
Consistent with this approach, the main topics identi­
fied are (a) office systems analysis, (b) office systems 
design, (c) human factors and (d) the possible applica­
tion of knowledge based methods. The analysis part of 
the programme delivers useful input for the design 
oriented phases. 
It is evident that the incorporation of human factors, 
especially into a technology-oriented programme is an 
essential prerequisite for effective use and a broad 
acceptance of the envisaged systems and thus for their 
final economic success. The research programme there­
fore includes specific research projects on human fac­
tors related to the office environment and this leads to 
programmes for cognitive aspects together with work 
structuring, qualification and training. Human factors 
laboratories are also seen as key competence centers 
and catalysers, offering the possibility of unbiased 
judgment regarding experimental systems and on com­
mercial products. 
4.1.1. Topics Office systems analysis 
(a) operational and functional analysis of office 
requirements 
(b) benefits analysis 
(c) a glossary of agreed terminology 
(d) analysis of human tasks within the office 
Office systems design 
(a) office system design methodology 
(b) modelling and simulation of office information 
systems 
(c) transaction monitor 
(d) deterministic and judgemental functions 
(e) techniques for user interface design 
Human factors 
(a) human factors laboratories 
(b) human-machine cognitive compatibility 
(c) qualification and work 
(d) user aids and learning tools 
(e) human-machine interface specification language 
(f) natural language interpretation and production 
4.1.2. Current Projects and Projects Under Negotiation 
'Functional Analysis of Office Requirements' 
Proj. Ref. 56: B/83 
The primary goal of this project is the investigation and 
analysis of office functions through the application of a 
new method being developed. The project will provide 
guidelines for the evaluation of available office systems, 
and it will support the manufacturers choice of facilities 
to be integrated into the system. The project includes 
development of methods to assess key qualitative and 
quantitative benefits to be gained through the use of com­
puter-based office systems, and methods to assess indivi­
dual and social resistance to the eventual introduction of 
information technology. 
The method developed will be applied to the analysis of 
information system requirements and to information 
technology assessment for important OS application 
domains. Such domains explicitly dealt with in the project 
are at present: public administrations, large manufactur­
ers, hospitals, the 'telework environment'. 
The topics to be studied in this area include: This project and the projects 285 and 813 will fully 
exchange results and coordinate planning. 
20. 12.85 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 332/45 
'Tools for Designing Office Systems (TODOS)' 
Proj. Ref 813 : B/85 
The project objective is to develop tools to support office 
systems design. The Jive goals are: 
— to investigate models for office systems design, from 
the level of detail of a feasibility analysis to the level 
of detail of an implementation specification; 
— to provide a design support environment based on 
graphical interfaces and using expert techniques to 
guide the design and identify problems and incorrect 
specifications; 
— to provide tools for the evaluation of the proposed 
office models at the different development phases; 
— to provide tools for the choice of an architecture for 
the office system; 
— to provide tools for office prototyping form specifica­
tion of the conceptual model. 
This project and the projects 56 and 285 will coordinate 
planning and fully exchange results. 
'Office Support Systems Analysis and Design (OSSAD)' 
Proj. Ref 285: B/84 
The project aims to create a model for an integrated off­
ice system, based on the most recent studies, but going as 
far as possible in a total integration. In particular the fol­
lowing subjects will be addressed: modelling office tasks 
and activities, developing a language (grammar and 
vocabulary), developing a method for the specification 
and measurement of performance, producing design pro­
cedures for office system, assessing requirements for 
user-oriented information management systems. 
This project and the projects 56 and 813 will coordinate 
planning and fully exchange results. 
'Human Factor Laboratories in Information Technolo­
gies' 
Proj. Ref 385: A/84 
The project aims at providing a focussing point for 
human factors activities in Europe. Three major fields of 
activity can be distinguished: 
1. The development of a methodology for the integra­
tion of Human Factors knowledge into IT products as an essential contribution to all parts of the design 
process cycle. 
The expertise required for this task will be gained in: 
2. Investigation of interaction modes of the human/ 
machine interface, and construction of a multi-modal 
HMI to achieve optimal interplay from the point of 
view of human factors. 
3. The expertise gained in 1) and 2) will be made avail­
able to the European industry as a whole by a) 
developing a software package for an integrated 
decision support system and b) by organising a broad 
programme of publications, seminars, workshops and 
consultancy activities throughout European IT indus­
try. 
In the pursuance of these objectives, the primary subject 
for study will be how people use information and for what 
purposes. User reactions to existing equipment will pro­
vide essential evidence for such studies. 
The output of the work is expected to be an understand­
ing of intrinsic human requirements independent of 
equipment, that can be applied at every stage in product 
design from abstract conception to the resolution of con­
crete design issues. There will be explicit recognition that 
as a consequence of the open-ended nature of the human 
use of information, conscious attention must be given to 
the interface between an information system and its 
human designers as well as its users. Some emphasis is 
given to user learning processes and their support by 
means of IT systems. 
An additional result of the project will be the development 
of a dynamic glossary (GLOT) in the field of information 
science and technology within 3 years. The glossary will 
be constructed on the basis of a large unified systemati-
zation providing not only terminological definitions but 
also inter- and intralingual interconnections between the 
lemmata and their parts. English and German terminol­
ogy will be used in the start but in the end all languages 
of the European Communities will be included. 
Cognitive Simulator for User Interface Design' 
Proj. Ref. 234: B/84 
This two-year project is aimed at the development of a 
simulation tool to assist designers in assessing the human 
cognitive compatability of particular interface designs for 
comparative purposes. Deliverables include the software 
package and user guide with a review of cognitive modell­
ing and dialogue design guidelines derived from valida-
No C 332/46 Official Journal of the European Communities 20.12.85 
tion trials. The produced software must be compatible 
with the results of standardization of e.g. operating 
systems. 
4.1.3. Scope for Further Work 
This area is well covered by projects retained and is 
unlikely to be considered for inclusion in call(s) for 
proposals to be published in 1986. 
R&D Area 4.2: Advanced Workstations and Human-
Machine Interfaces 
The workstation is the user's gateway to the office 
system. User acceptance and user performance depend 
on the design of the corresponding human-machine 
interface. 
The most important channel for information input to 
the human user is the visual channel. This channel, as 
well as the bi-directional vocal channel, have evolved 
to provide information for motoric activities which 
should be adequately integrated in operating the inter­
face. In consequence, VDU's and touch keyboards and 
speech receptors will emerge to form an integrated 
input/output device suitable to manipulate text and 
images by direct manual and vocal control. Preferably 
the screens should have the dimensions and portability 
of paper (electronic paper). Another approach to a 
more comfortable 'visual input' will be the large screen 
display. The need for multi-functional capabilities will 
require the development of devices which allow 
graphic input and editing, on-line handwriting and 
ideogrammatic conversation. 
As long as there is no portable paperlike display, print­
ing will be necessary and the need will be growing for 
faster, more versatile (text, graphic, colour) printers at 
low cost. The provision of human-machine interfaces 
which support the complete range of functions tradi­
tionally carried out by pen or paper is necessary. 
A high proportion of telephone or face-to-face com­
munication indicates that visual and spoken informa­
tion will be preferred whenever it is applicable. Visual 
communication will require the development of high 
definition colour video scanning devices with the 
necessary processing capabilities for efficient storage 
and transmission and the use of the multifunction flat 
panel display. 
The voice channel cannot handle as much information 
as the vision channel but is our most efficient carrier of 
natural language. Voice communication will require the 
development of sophisticated processing for improving 
the acoustic environment, and the defelopment of coding schemes. Voice communication between man 
and the office system will require the development of 
efficient speech recognition and of a natural speech 
synthesizer. 
An important aspect of facilitating the standardization 
of the interface with the human world and the paper 
world is easy-to-use formalized languages. These are to 
be designed in a way which allows the user, rather than 
the computer professional, to specify his needs directly 
to the system. 
The implementations and testing of user decision sup­
port functions are considered to be imbedded in the 
workstation. Availability of these functions is supposed 
to be a key-factor in the competition among office 
products. 
The development of specific system interface compo­
nents should lead to a general architecture which will 
allow the integration of the subsystems in an architec­
turally homogenous solution. Although the work items 
are phrased in terms of integration into a physical 
workstation, proposals should not necessarily be con­
fined to those which assume that all the associated 
functionality is resident in the workstation. Solutions 
involving distributed functionality accessed over com­
munication links are equally relevant. 
Much of the software that supports the user will reside 
in the workstation. Any rules that are, or will be, agreed 
upon in order to improve portability of software, 
should be implemented. This applies also to rules and 
agreements with respect to other aspects of the system. 
4.2.1. Topics 
The following R&D topics are identified: 
System aspects 
(a) System aspects of workstation design 
(b) Workstation security 
Vision 
(a) vision interface 
(b) flat panel workstation design 
(c) high resolution video imager 
(d) image coding 
Paper 
(a) paper interface 
(b) advanced scanner 
(c) advanced printer 
(d) microfilm interface 
(e) graphics coding 
20. 12. 85 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 332/47 
(f) graphics recognition 
(g) intelligent graphics recognition 
Speech 
(a) speech interface 
(b) speech coding 
(c) speech recognition 
(d) speech synthesis 
(e) intelligent speech recognition. 
Office languages and procedures 
(a) office document architectures and languages 
(b) office interface languages 
(c) multi-media document manipulation 
(d) intelligent user function support 
(e) user to user multimedia communication 
4.2.2. Current Projects and Projects Under Negotiation 
'Secure Open Multimedia Integrated Workstation 
(SOM1W)' 
Proj. Ref. 367: A/84 
The project involves the design and implementation of an 
office workstation (WS) which is based on the 'open sys­
tems' concept allowing the generation of standard proto­
cols for communication media. It is thus possible to link 
the WS with different types of networks and with ISDN. 
The WS will be capable of processing different types of 
information including: text, fixed and moving images, 
graphics, voice and hand drawings. The WS will use a 
network-oriented operating system to control multiwin-
dows and a distributed database management system. Its 
main 'hardware'parts will involve: a 32-bit CPU, inter­
mediate capacity of disk, high resolution screen, mouse, 
camera, digitizer and compressor of speech, loudspeaker, 
optical character scanner and appropriate networking cir­
cuits. These will be complemented by a device and proce­
dures to control access. 
'Integration of European Typewriters as Low Cost Office 
Workstation' 
Proj. Ref. 855: B/85 
The project is aimed at assessing the future role of type­
writers connected to office networks comprising other 
workstations, file servers and data processors. 
The project will implement and test a prototype integrat­
ing various office functions such as electronic mail services to outside suppliers, transmitting and receiving 
graphic information and connecting the alphanumeric 
and data functions and the voice telephone system. 
A second aim of the project is to stimulate harmonization 
on the human and network interface levels among 
European manufacturers. 
'Components for Future Computing Systems' 
Proj. Ref. 956: A/85 
This project aims at the design and experimentation with 
a Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) computer of 
European architecture, starting from the established state 
of the art. The computer is primarily oriented towards 
office workstations and file servers where it would per­
form highly sophisticated functions in a user friendly 
manner. 
'An Office Systems Research Workstation for Europe 
(ERW)' 
Proj. Ref. 1032: A/85 
The overall objective of this project is a hardware config­
uration and software environments suitable for research 
and prototyping advanced integrated office systems. This 
will strengthen the European computer industry and 
reduce its dependence on costly foreign products. 
Specific technical objectives include developing within 
3 years an advanced prototype with: 
— very high performance at a low cost: 
— hardware design to exploit VLSI manufacture and 
RISC architecture in the processor design; 
— open architecture so that resources elsewhere on the 
network can be substituted for local resources; 
— tools for language development for generating RISC 
code to interpret virtual-machine instruction set; 
— programming environments for several languages. 
A demonstrable prototype of the workstation will be 
available in the third quarter of the third year. 
'Interactive Handling of Digitized Images at the User 
Interface' 
Proj. Ref. 79: B/83 
This project covers the different aspects of picture 
handling at the user interface in an office environment: 
processing, storage, presentation and manipulation. 
Among the aims of the project are the identification of 
No C 332/48 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 12.85 
user needs for picture handling in a multi-media inter­
face, and the development of uniform descriptors for the 
picture properties. 
'Modelling and Simulation of the Visual Characteristics 
of Modern Display Technologies under Office Work Con­
ditions ' 
Proj. Ref 612: B/84 
The project aims at designing, engineering and building a 
simulator in order to test properties of the displays based 
upon new technologies. Specific objectives are: comparison 
of displays simulated according to user acceptability 
criteria ; conducting a limited number of ergonomic 
experiments designed to simulate prolonged office work 
conditions to obtain more insight into architectural and 
technology factors related to quality and 'visual confort'. 
'A High Compression Picture Coding Algorithm for Pho­
tographic Videotex' 
Proj. Ref 563: B/84 
The purpose is to develop with a group that is representa­
tive but small enough to be effective, a high compression 
picture coding methodology that can be applied to televi­
sion signals. The final goal of the work is the definition of 
a selected coding technique as a possible European stan­
dard for photographic videotex on ISDN. 
'Video Coding at 256 KBits/S' 
Proj. Ref 925: B/85 
The project consists of surveys and specifications, and 
harmonisation efforts among leading manufacturers. The 
Surveys to be carried out are of the technical require­
ments in Teleconferencing. The specifications are for 
moving picture CODECS in the range 384-64 Kbit/s. 
The Paper Interface' 
Proj. Ref. 295: A/84 
This project addresses the role of paper and paper-related 
processes in the context of advanced electronic office 
systems. Research will be conducted into techniques that 
efficiently handle information on paper, and that will 
promote the ultimate reduction of paper use. 
Particular techniques considered are: 
— the electronic reading of previously prepared paper 
documents to encode image, and encode and recog­
nize text and graphics; — electronic representation of documents regardless of 
the original means of creation; 
— methods for optimizing the reproduction of docu­
ments containing pictorial coloured information. 
These include colour processing innovative compres­
sion algorithms and enhancement of colour rendition 
methods in order to finally reproduce on an appro­
priate output device true colour pictorial information; 
— the processing to reproduce an electronic document 
for different output media (soft copy, hard copy, and 
transmission); 
— the encoding and recognition in real time of textual 
and graphical information as typically produced by 
man. 
The results will be implemented in a research machine for 
the purposes of evaluation and demonstration. 
This project is complementary to project 853. 
'Acquisition, Compression and Reproduction of True 
Colour Image Documents' 
Proj. Ref 853: B/85 
The project will deal with methods for optimizing the 
reproduction of documents containing pictorial couloured 
information. The reproduction of a colour document con­
sists of a few essential steps, from the input of the ori­
ginal to the final print out of the copy. Further interme­
diate steps will be developed in order to optimize the full 
process: these include colour processing innovative com­
pression algorithms to achieve high efficiency in storage 
and transmission functions and enhancement of colour 
prictorial information. 
An integrated feasibility model will be developed to 
demonstrate the results of the research. Three modules 
will be produced: 
— printer prototype 
— scanner prototype 
— coding/decoding module 
The techniques researched should lead to low-cost 
devices. 
This project is complementary to project 295. 
'Amorphous Silicon Contact Imager for Office and 
Graphic Applications' 
Proj. Ref 1051: B/85 
The objective of this project is to develop a high resolution 
advanced contact imager for office and graphic applica-
20. 12.85 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 332/49 
tions, which will result in very compact systems. In this 
project new techniques, i.e. HOMOCVD and photodisso-
ciation to deposit amorphous Si will be investigated aim­
ing at higher stability. 
The project will: 
— develop a linear contact type scanning image sensor 
with a-S: resulting in a very compact system, 
— Investigate new techniques to improve the properties 
of this contact imager. 
In this first phase of a large range development pro­
gramme, a linear contact type amorphous silicon imager 
with a matrix read-out in parallel blocks will be devel­
oped. 
'Speech Interface at Office Workstations (SPIN)' 
Proj.Ref.64:A/83 
The objective of this project is to develop the basic compo­
nents of and integrate these into, a comprehensive 
speech interface at the workstation. The components are: 
speech analysis, speech recognition, speaker verification, 
speech coding and decoding, and speech synthesis. 
For the integration of the components it is important to 
have an understanding of the usage of the speech in 
human-machine communication, and the quality/func­
tionality aspects that make that the interface is accepted 
by the human users. These two aspects will be studied 
extensively. 
As concerns the coverage of different natural languages, 
these are at present: Italian, French, Dutch and German. 
An extension of this project will then further investigate 
and implement a system to recognize and understand 
continuous speech using advanced techniques in the fields 
of natural language understanding, computational 
linguistics and artificial intelligence. 
'Intelligence and Knowledge Aided Recognition of 
Speech (IKAROS)' 
Proj. Ref 954: B/85 
Implementation of a system to recognize and understand 
continuous speech, speaker independent and in real time. 
Restricted to a single application and a subset of natural 
language relevant for the application. 
Models will be developed to perform an integration of 
prosodic, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic knowledge in 
the recognition system. Methods will be investigated for the specification of appli­
cations including tolls for generating applications and 
language specific knowledge sources. 
Experiments will be done for English, French and 
German. The project is planned over a 5 year period. 
The participants are independent and industrial research 
organizations from France and Germany with an indus­
trial partner from the UK. 
This project is complementary to project 64. 
'Linguistic Analysis of the European Languages' 
Proj. Ref.291:B/84 
The objective of this project is to provide, in the form of 
computer data files and associated methodology, the 
following concerning a number of European languages: 
— dictionary lemmata, flections, grammatical catego­
ries; 
— algorithms and tables for converting the orthographic 
form into the phonetic one and vice-versa; 
— algorithms and tables for the word stress assignment; 
— statistics, ranking lemmata and flections by 
frequency of use; 
— texts, suitable for extracting further statistical 
information. 
The project results are fundamental for a number of other 
projects, in particular those dealing with the natural 
speech and language. 
A specification phase has started and will be followed by 
the development of a linguistic processor for high-quality 
multi-language text-to-speech conversion systems and for 
large vocabulary speech recognition systems. The cutter 
shall also provide for error detection and correction in 
string to be passed. 
'Investigation into the Effective Use of Speech at the 
Human-Machine Interface' 
Proj. Ref. 449: B/84 
This project will identify the requirements for effective 
voice interfaces in particular for CAD/CAM/CAE work­
stations. The partners are user research associations, end 
users, and firms that are suppliers in the voice and com­
puter fields. 
The project results are fundamental for a number of other 
No C 332/50 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 12. 85 
projects, in particular those dealing with the natural 
speech and language. 
'Handling of Mixed Text/Image/Voice Documents 
Based on a Standardized Office Document Architecture' 
Proj.Ref 121: A/83 
Basis for this work is a sophisticated object oriented 
document architecture being standardised up to the first 
basic level by ECMA, ISO and CCITT. By the project, 
concepts and architectures will be elaborated and verified 
that support the easy and natural processing of docu­
ments. The project will define and test bridges between 
the essentially paper-oriented office world and the elec­
tronic document world of tomorrow, (see also 
area 4.2.5.(c)). 
The initial objective of this project, that will start with a 
specification phase, is to provide in the form of computer 
data files and of computer method fields coded in high 
level language, the following concerning a number of 
European languages: 
dictionary lemmata, flections, grammatical categories; 
algorithms and tables for converting the orthographic 
form into the phonetic one and vice-versa; 
algorithms and tables for the word stress assignment; 
statistics, ranking lemmata and flections by frequency of 
use; 
texts, suitable for extracting further statistical informa­
tion. 
The project results are fundamental for a number of other 
projects, in particular those dealing with the natural 
speech and language and will be used in continuation 
phase where the aim will be to develop a linguistic proces­
sor for high-quality multi-language text-to-speech conver­
sion systems and for large vocabulary speech recognition 
systems. The cutter shall also provide for error detection 
and correction in string to be passed. 
This project is complementary to project 1024. 
'Piloting of the Office Document Architecture (POD A)' 
Proj.Ref. 1024: A/85 
The project is to implement the new ODA standard for an 
office document architecture under UNIX in an essen­
tially portable way. A pilot version of the software will be 
ported to one of the hardware products of each manufac­
turer in the consortium. The software to be used is partly 
implemented already in Project 121. Other parts (essen­
tially a syntax driver, adaptable format checker and trans­
lator) will be written for this project. The language used will be 'objective C, an object oriented preprocessor for C 
which is commercially available and, hence, renders no 
restriction to the portability of the software products 
delivered. The work includes a demonstration of docu­
ment interchange between different vendor machines and 
installations, and the development of a common user . 
interface. 
Aspects of integrated systems are covered in a number of 
projects, although a fully integrated system approach is 
not addressed in a project yet. 
This project is complementary to project 121. 
'Intelligent Workstation (IWS)' 
Proj. Ref 82: B/83 
The goal of this project is to provide the office worker 
with an integrated workstation software which can pro­
vide sophisticated services ranging from speech and 
graphics to expert level decision aids and automated 
report generation. The prototype workstation to be devel­
oped will be tested in Denvironments providing communi­
cation facilities and connected file servers. Much empha­
sis will be laid on the application of methods and soft­
ware that aimed at representing knowledge of the office 
environment. 
'Extended Office Process Migration with Interactive 
Panel Displays' 
Proj. Ref. 878: B/85 
In this project a prototype system is to be developed which 
combines the concept of extended process migration with 
a novel panel display device in order to assess and pres­
ent office activities. Typical office activities consist of 
tasks which are performed in a parallel or sequential 
manner by persons in office roles. These activities are 
described formally in order to automate them, where the 
single tasks are to be performed. However where the 
involvement of human beings introduce non deterministic 
elements, these are to be included as exceptions. 
Extended office process migration covers both the for­
mally described flow of work and the handling of excep­
tions which occur frequently, especially in office work. On 
the basis of office process migration a prototype of an off­
ice system is to be developed as a tool for design, optimi­
zation and demonstration of office activities. 
4.2.3. Scope for Further Work 
In this area the following topics will be considered for 
inclusion in call(s) for proposals to be published in 
1986. 
20. 12.85 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 332/51 
— Vision and Display: In addition to existing projects, 
a project will be considered that deals with techno­
logy integration for the man-machine interface. 
— Office languages and procedures: There are 4 pro­
jects in the office language and procedures subarea 
covering a broad spectrum already. Nonetheless 
this subarea is very wide and important; work with 
respect to intelligent user support and office inter­
face languages emphasizing multi-linguism is parti­
cularly lacking. 
R&D Area 4.3: Communication Systems 
Office communication presents a number of possible 
long lead time research topics. Technological advances 
are needed in microelectronics and in fibre optics, and 
research is necessary on the principles of future com­
munication systems such as wideband local area net­
works (LAN), the interconnection of LAN's and the 
gateway facilities for multimode functionality. R&D 
should lead to new systems and to standards consistent 
with the ISO reference model for open systems inter­
connection (OSI). Besides these technical problems, 
there are non-technical problem areas which have to be 
addressed in order to support the progress of office 
communication systems. The requirements of office 
communication have to be explored more systemati­
cally to get a more solid basis for future telecommuni-. 
cation system design. The special aspects of human 
interface with communication have to be studied, and 
the future relationship of the PTTs to new local com­
munication systems has to be considered. New lan­
guages and operating system facilities are necessary in 
connection with distributed systems. 
4.3.1. Topics 
Within this scope of possible research activities, four 
main topics which cover some key issues have been 
determined. 
The first topic is dedicated to the fundamental question 
— how to provide a common communication system 
for all office communication needs. This question 
becomes more and more urgent, since non-voice com­
munication will be needed at almost every desk in the 
future and video communication is on its way. 
The second topic addresses the wide band LAN, 
including the application of optical fibres, and all the 
technological problems related to this. It is also con­
cerned with the role of switched communication in the 
office. It addresses the problems of advancing from 
current single service switching techniques towards 
multiservice variable bandwidth switching which will 
allow the interconnection of all office peripherals and 
resources. The third topic deals with resource management in a 
distributed environment. 
The fourth topic intends to advance the standardiza­
tion of value added communication services in the off­
ice e.g. in the form of mail box messaging for text, 
image and voice, and for multi-media information sys­
tems such as advanced videotex. 
Architecture 
(a) communication system architectures 
(b) security in communications 
(c) harmonization issues in communication 
Technology 
(a) optical wideband LAN 
(b) advanced switching techniques 
Resource management 
(a) distributed systems 
Services 
(a) multi-mode messaging 
(b) ISDN-based advanced videotex 
(c) teleconferencing 
(d) advanced services 
4.3.2. Current Projects and Projects Under Negotiation 
'Broad Site Local Wideband Communication System' 
Proj. Ref. 73: A/83 
This project is concerned with the research and develop­
ment of a local area wideband communication system for 
broad sites. The prototype system developed will meet the 
anticipated future communication requirements of large 
industrial, scientific and administrative organisations. 
The project will take into account data, text, voice and 
graphics communication needs, and it will provide back­
bone networks and gateways for heterogeneous LANs. 
'Communications Systems Architectures' 
Proj. Ref. 237: A/84 
The emphasis of the project is on the development of new 
architectures for the interconnection of terminals and 
resources in an integrated multi-service environment. The 
network developed in this project will reflect the open 
No C 332/52 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 12. 85 
systems policy by providing interfaces following OSI 
standards. 
A top down approach is proposed in three phases: 
Phase one will identify the needs for communication by 
analysis of user requirements. A logical model of com­
munication will be developed. A proposal will be made for 
the integration of a distributed operating system within 
the open system structure. 
Phase two will develop the physical architecture by map­
ping the logical model from phase one onto actual com­
munication technology. 
Phase three will be the development of those system ele­
ments identified in phase two to achieve a pilot network 
demonstration. The pilot network will be benchmarked 
for performance to evaluate system design decisions in 
phase two. 
'An Integrated Network Architecture for Office Commun­
ications' 
Proj. Ref 395: A/84 
The project is to design and define an architecture for off­
ice communications, and to demonstrate a pilot imple­
mentation. The architecture will be capable of including 
all types of local and wide area networks, such as optical 
LANs, CATV broadband networks, PABXs, packet-
switched networks and the emerging integrated services 
digital network (ISDN). 
The integrated architecture will be demonstrated in a 
pilot integrated network including the broadband network 
and a variety of other available local and wide area net­
works, and linking the project partners' sites. The demon­
strated applications will include an enhanced version of 
the document handling environment. 
'Standardisation of Integrated LAN Services and Service 
Access Protocols' 
Proj. Ref. 43: B/83 
The aim of the project is to define the services to be prov­
ided by an integrated traffic LA N and to define a stable, 
LAN-technology independent interface between DTE 
and LAN access unit. This interface will comprise the 
physical interface and the service access protocols by 
means of which the services can be used. 
'Parallel Architecture for Networking Gateways Linking 
OSI Systems (PA NGLOSS)' 
Proj. Ref. 890: B/85 
This project is to build a prototype high-performance net­
working gateway using a highly-parallel architecture in 
order to meet the anticipated demand for linking OSI systems and networks. To achieve this, the project is to 
study the following areas: 
— overall architecture characteristics of a networking 
gateway: 
— the functional definition of a networking gateway 
(including performance and connectivity goals), and 
a formalized approach to design an architecture of 
such a gateway: 
— implementation-oriented issues (e.g. hardware/soft­
ware split, suitable technologies), and a formalized 
approach to the transformation of specifications into 
implementations and on to parallel hardware: 
— performance analysis of proposed architectures, spe­
cifications and implementations: 
— Rapid prototyping of designs using hardware/soft­
ware trade-offs as appropriate. 
'Local Integrated Optical Network (LION)' 
Proj. Ref. 169: A/83 
The LION project is implementing a wideband local area 
network based on optical fibre technology, with major 
application in the office environment, including such 
applications in industrial research laboratories, universi­
ties, hospitals and manufacturing plants. The LION will 
guarantee multiple access to a number Of independent 
users with the requirements of distributed processing and 
distributed intelligence, and handle voice, data, text and 
video traffic. Very high bit rates are foreseen, requiring 
new technologies in integrated optics and very high speed 
electronic components. 
'TALON — Testing and Analysis of Local Area Network 
Optical Networks' 
Proj. Ref. 870: B/85 
A special task (TALON) is aimed at providing solid tech­
nical and commercial philosophy for testing complex opti­
cal LANs. It supports and complements communications 
system design activities. Many of the currently estab­
lished methods for testing point-to-point optical fibre 
links are ineffective when applied to complex optical 
topologies. The sub-project will build demonstrators and 
evaluate their effectiveness in different environments. 
This project is complementary to project 169. 
'Ultra Wideband Coherent Optical LAN' 
Proj. Ref. 249: B/84 
The project will investigate the feasibility of utilising 
coherent optical techniques in a local area network by 
20. 12. 85 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 332/53 
addressing both technical and system issues. It will con­
sider new machine architectures to implement high band­
width transmissions of order of several Gbits/sec for 
different types of information including voice, text and 
image. 
'Dynamically Adaptable Multi-Service Switch' 
Proj. Ref 1059: B/85 
This project intends to identify and exploit the relative 
advantages of a switch oriented communication architec­
ture with respect to the wide variety of traffic and services 
necessary to the office. The project includes a require­
ment study, an advanced design and technology investig­
ation, a partial prototype sufficient to illustrate the princi­
ple and also alternative architectural principles including 
the concept of bandwidth switching. Geographic location 
of terminals will be also considered and the traffic gener­
ated and the performance required by a future office 
communication system. 
'Construction and Management of Distributed Office 
Systems (COMA NDOS)' 
Proj. Ref. 834: A/85 
The main goal of this work is the creation of an efficient 
and easy to use environment of the development and 
management of distributed applications. To meet this 
objective combinations of advances and the state of the 
art of different technologies will be applied to innovative 
and general tools. The approach will allow for the specific 
characteristics of different distributed office information 
systems. 
'Multipoint Interactive Audio- Visual Communication 
(MIAC)' 
Proj. Ref 1057: B/85 
This project will develop and demonstrate a system for 
the simultaneous communication of speech, visual and 
data forms of information between persons at two, three 
or more, at widely separated locations, using ISDN and 
other 64 Kbit/s networks. The demonstration itself will 
be a multipoint international audioconference system 
with visual and office-system aids, but the signal and pro­
tocol infrastructure developed will be applicable to a wide 
range of other audiovisual services. This infrastructure 
developed will be applicable to a wide range of other 
audiovisual services. 4.3.3. Scope for Further Work 
In this area multi-mode messaging services will be con­
sidered for inclusion in call(s) for proposals to be pub­
lished in 1986. 
R&D Area 4.4 : Advanced Multi-Media Storage and 
Retrieval Systems 
Information technology and office automation are fun­
damentally concerned with the storage, accessing and 
movement of information, covering data, text, graphics, 
voice, images and other forms. Investigations leading 
to the definition of an advanced data-base model for 
office applications and studies of the security, privacy, 
authority of access and information distribution are 
fundamental to a wide range of office systems research. 
The proposed research is oriented toward construction 
of a number of experimental prototype office informa­
tion servers, and the operation of these in realistic 
conditions, alone and in association with each other, to 
gain practical experience in the systems implications of 
building these servers, loading them with practical 
information and using them in a realistic way. 
The work is therefore divided into three general classes: 
systems issues, usage and needs, and components. 
Systems issues: these cover the design and operation of 
office information servers, including high-performance 
filters and investigations of new information models 
and the development of metrics relating to these. 
Servers must be considered in relation to the other 
components of a comprehensive office system includ­
ing other information servers and the distribution of 
information and functions between them. Work on the 
filing interface-related aspects of query languages and 
declarative content languages is identified. 
Usage and needs: this topic addresses the nature of the 
information (data, text, graphics, images etc...) that 
will be held in office information servers in terms of 
quality, quantity and combination and the usage of 
that information. An internal adaptive interface is to be 
investigated, that responds to the needs and experience 
of users. 
Components: the development of hardware, software 
and systems elements that will be incorporated into 
advanced filing systems, primarily in information serv­
ers, but also in advanced workstations. These include 
filters, the systems management issues relating to using 
optical discs in advanced office systems, the systems 
techniques required to achieve very high perceived reli­
ability, and the application of advanced information 
No C 332/54 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 12.85 
processing techniques to advanced filing and retrieval 
systems. 
4.4.1. Topics 
The topics covered by this R&D area include: 
File server architectures i.e. 
(a) office information server design and evaluation 
(b) very high security systems 
System issues i.e. 
(a) new information models 
(b) file query and declarative content languages 
Usage and needs i.e. 
(a) nature and usage of filed information 
(b) user-file adaptive interface 
(c) performance of office information servers 
Components i.e. 
(a) file filters 
(b) optical storage systems concepts 
4.4.2. Current Projects and Projects Under Negotiation 
'A Multimedia Filing System' 
Proj. Ref. 28: A/83 
The goal of this project is to develop a system that pro­
vides filing services for multimedia documents using 
magnetic and optical storage media. Particular attention 
will be paid to the needs of the office environment. The 
system will be implemented on a dedicated server that 
accepts requests from clients such as workstations or 
other devices. The units of communication between server 
and client will be multimedia documents rather than 
physical records or blocks. 
The services provided by the server are those traditionally 
found in an information retrieval or database environ­
ment. However, the dual demands of a multimedia capa­
bility and application to offices introduce research issues. 
The server will be implemented by increments. The first 
prototype will deal with text and attribute data only, sub­
sequent versions will add image and voice data. 
The global design has now been completed and work is 
underway on the functional specifications of system 
components including the server subsystem and the user 
interface. 'Design and Operational Evaluation of Distributed Office 
Information Servers' 
Proj. Ref. 231: A/84 
The objective of the project is to design, demonstrate and 
then evaluate a family of working prototype office 
information servers capable of holding in digital elec­
tronic form representations of all office information cur­
rently committed to paper. A global model will be estab­
lished both for the information held in the servers and the 
functions needed to manipulate and manage it. Key to 
the project is the consideration of the issues involved in 
distributed information, architecture and use in the office 
environment. Two major demonstrations of the capabili­
ties of Office Information Servers are planned during the 
project. A pilot demonstration at the end of year 3 and a 
main demonstration at the end of year 4. A full year is 
then available for a full evaluation of the system. 
An extension to the initial project will then investigate 
and report on the usability and performance issues deriv­
ing from the operation of a distributed set of information 
servers which collectively support a fully integrated ser­
vice. It will also implement and evaluate two configura­
tions: 
— 'Logical server' — a set of 'unit servers' (one proces­
sor) on a single site, behaving as a single entity to the 
user. 
— 'Global service' — made up of several 'Logical serv­
ers ', distributed geographically. 
'New information models for Office Filing and Retrieval' 
Proj. Ref. 59: A/83 
The project deals with research into new information 
models for office filing and retrieval. The emphasis will 
be on research of the theoretical issues of a model which 
characterises all forms of office information. A number of 
models will be developed and related to techniques of fil­
ing and retrieval of information. 
Many key problems are being investigated, the majority 
of these dealing with aspects of human acceptability, or 
more precisely: speed and accurateness of the retrieval 
process for the skilled and unskilled user. 
The models developed will be constructed and validated 
in a software environment which emulates the interaction 
of an office filing and retrieval system. 
The schema architecture has been produced together with 
the sketch of the user interface. Work continues with 
work on querying, storage structure, and aspects of sys­
tem security. 
20.12.85 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 332/55 
'A General Public Data, Voice and Picture Storage 
Retrieval System' 
Proj. Ref. 901: B/85 
This project is to create extremely large multi-media data 
and image base. It will be made widely available for use 
by the general public. It intends to demonstrate the feasi­
bility of such a system, and includes : development of a 
new laser vision system combining analog and discutely 
coded information and a multi-media database retreival 
system including a 'major walking' interface to geograph­
ical information. Design of the system will allow access 
by means of widely available, low cost workstations. 
Particular emphasis is given to a very easy to handle user 
interface that will make use of knowledge engineering 
techniques. 
A A3. Scope for Further Work 
In this area the following topic will be considered for 
inclusion in call(s) for proposals to be published in 
1986: multi-media storage and retrieval system usage 
and needs. 
R&D area 4.5: Integrated Office Information Systems 
The research and the prototype development of compo­
nents for office systems has to be supplemented by the 
research and evaluation of integrated office systems 
concepts for a variety of office environments. In an 
industrial R&D programme the testing of prototypes, 
against requirements that are representative for market 
conditions, is the most important check on the relev­
ance of the research done. 
The architecture for distributed systems is a major area 
of concern. Distribution of functional units networked 
together can be considered the fundamental concept 
not only for office systems, but for all future informa­
tion systems. Elaboration and implementation of this 
concept is by no means trivial, and requires many new 
ideas and the development of reference models and 
standards. A particular aspect, system security, should 
be considered throughout the design process on the 
total system level as well as on component level. 
Two topics are identified in the subarea Test and 
evaluation that are complementary but not necessarily 
mutually dependent. 
First: the creation of test- and evaluation environments 
for office system components and integrated office sys­tem prototypes, that allow qualitative and quantitative 
validation in a variety of simulated offices and enter­
prises. This work would also use the products of 
area 4.1 as well as other standards, performance and 
integration work. 
Second: the design, development and evaluation of 
advanced office system prototypes, based upon state-
of-the-art components developed in Europe, possibly 
under the ESPRIT programme (area 4.2 to 4.4), and 
based upon the results of structured analysis in the off­
ice systems science and human factors areas (area 4.1). 
4.5.1. Topics 
The topics to be studied in this area include: 
Information system architecture 
(a) system architectures 
(b) systems security. 
Test and evaluation 
(a) office system test and evaluation facilities 
(b) office systems application test beds. 
4.5.2. Current Projects and Projects Under Negotiation 
'Office Systems Security' 
Proj. Ref. 998: B/85 
The project deals with all security aspects of information 
systems in an integrated way. It is defined in three 
phases: 
— assessment of the state-of-the-art, including require­
ments and solutions in such highly sensitive areas as 
the military and process control. 
— development of a security model for information sys­
tems. 
— specification of security measures and elaboration of 
implementation guidelines. 
'Advanced Information System for Public Administra­
tions (ASTRA)' 
Proj. Ref. 831: A/85 
ASTRA will provide facilities for testing and evaluating 
office information systems. The project consists of two 
phases : in the first phase an analysis of very large public 
administrations in four participating countries will be 
made with regard to information handling. The second 
No C 332/56 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 12.85 
phase will provide two prototypes which are split on sub­
jects of size, complexity, system architecture and costs 
into 
(i) a high level prototype, dealing with large amounts 
of data and 
(ii) a low level prototype, dealing with the multifunc­
tional aspects of office automation. 
These prototypes will make use of advanced storage and 
retrieval systems based on optical discs. Finally an eval­
uation of the second phase will result in test implementa-
5.0. Introduction 
This area relates to the total range of manufacturing 
activities including computer aided design (CAD), 
computer aided engineering (CAE),, computer aided 
manufacturing (CAM), flexible machining and 
assembly systems, robotics, testing and quality control. 
The area has been selected for its potential impact on 
the methods and economies of production, which are 
strongly geared to success for the IT industries, and for 
manufacturing industry in general. 
The objectives in CIM are to create an environment in 
which multi-vendor systems can be implemented in a 
progressive manner, and in which Community IT sup­
pliers can compete effectively. To achieve this, effort 
will be concentrated in two main streams. Firstly, work 
is needed on infrastructures, which concentrates on the 
development of design rules and architectures leading 
to a common reference frame. Relevant international 
standards activity must be continuously assessed, and 
areas identified in which European action could be 
supported. The second stream involves action on those 
sub-systems, interfaces and tools whose development 
or refinement is judged to be of strategic value for 
European Community industry (both users and ven­
dors). 
In order to stimulate and facilitate the transfer of new 
information technology concepts to the engineering 
industries within the Community, application centres 
will be encouraged to provide an important focus for 
the coordination of effort and the exchange of informa­
tion among the various and sometimes disparate parts 
of the CIM R&D programme. 
Six R&D areas are described: 
5.1. Integrated Systems Architectures tions of both prototypes in two different countries. The 
results of the project will be available for the PAs of 
European Member States. 
4.5.3. Scope for Further Work 
In this area the following topics will be considered for 
inclusion in call(s) for proposals to be published in 
1986: Information systems architecture, Test and 
evaluation facilities and Application test beds. 
5.2. CAD/CAE 
5.3. Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) 
5.4. Flexible Manufacturing Systems 
5.5. Subsystems and Components 
5.6. CIM System Applications 
R&D area 5.1: Integrated Systems Architectures 
In the next decade, one can expect that a wide variety 
of CIM systems will be implemented within manufac­
turing industry. To be effective, each system must serve 
its specific application in an optimum manner. In order 
to remain competitive and to preserve flexibility, effec­
tive design methods for CIM must be developed so that 
new technologies can be exploited as they become 
available. At present, there are some guidelines but no 
international standards available for the design of sys­
tems architectures for CIM. 
New and innovative conceptual approaches are 
required in order to fit appropriate systems architec­
tures to the total manufacturing process from initial 
product development, product design, production plan­
ning and control, real time control of production 
equipment, materials handling, through to inventory 
control and sales. To support the total systems 
approach, it is necessary to develop strategies for data, 
communications, and processing, which address both 
physical and logical requirements. Systems architec­
tures for CIM should be open, so as to avoid market 
domination by any one vendor, and to allow users 
maximum freedom of choice in their selection of sub­
systems. SUBPROGRAMME 5: 
COMPUTER INTEGRATED MANUFACTURE 
20. 12. 85 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 332/57 
The resources needed to define open systems architec­
tures, and the market strength necessary to gain accept­
ance of these, are beyond the reach of all but the largest 
and most influential organizations. However, the desir­
ability of developing a reference model, which would 
allow users to develop multi-vendor CIM systems is 
readily apparent. This is an area where the potential for 
significant advances through a unified approach is 
high, and it is therefore particularly suitable for effort 
on a Community scale. 
5.1.1. Topics 
— the definition and development of open systems 
architectures that would be applicable in a range of 
manufacturing environments; 
— implement these architectures in real manufactur­
ing environments 
5.1.2. Current Projects and Projects Under Negotiation 
Preliminary work completed in pilot projects provides 
a useful basis for this and other areas of ESPRIT CIM. 
A book entitled 'Design Rules for a CIM System', 
editors: R.W. Yeomans, A. Choudry, P.J.W. ten Hagen, 
is already available. A further publication, covering 
design rules for the integration of robots into CIM, is 
scheduled for publication in 1986. 
The current project in this area is: 
'AMICE, A European Computer Integrated Manufactur­
ing Architecture' ' 
Proj. Ref. 688: B/84 
It is intended to define and develop Open Systems 
Architectures for CIM, to support present and future 
needs. Design criteria for the architectures include: 
— openness, i.e. the creation of an environment in 
which multi-vendor systems can be supported. In this 
context, the architectures will be ISO-OSI com­
patible. 
— protection of existing investment — i.e., migration 
paths will be identified from present to future imple­
mentations. — capability for progressive implementation, with 
special attention, to the needs ofSMEs. 
— applicability across a wide spectrum of industry. 
5.1.3. Scope for Fu rther Work 
This area is well-covered by existing work and is 
unlikely to be considered for inclusion in call(s) for 
proposals to be published in 1986. 
R&D area 5.2: Computer Aided Design/Computer 
Aided Engineering 
The importance of CAD/CAE is that it : 
— reduces the design time and facilitates optimization 
of the design, of products and processes, 
— facilitates storage of all relevant aspects of design, 
and rapid update and retrieval of information, 
— generates data which are used by the whole manu­
facturing process including robot and machine tool 
programmes. 
— provides feedback from the manufacturing process 
to the design team which allows a more versatile 
and economic operation. 
Modular structures for CAD/CAE subsystems (which 
include generalized 3D-modellers, geometrical design 
systems, engineering computational programs, simula­
tion programs) are needed in order to give the designer 
access to different software packages and data bases. 
Such systems must be able to supply data that are readily 
usable for all interacting engineering and production 
activities, as well as good display quality and 
capabilities. Increasingly these systems have to support 
disparate and geographically dispersed organizations 
cooperating in the design process of a complex end 
product. 
To encourage the wider use of CIM systems by reduc­
ing the risk of failure, methods should be developed to 
allow the representation, specification and testing of 
proposed systems prior to installation. 
Unless very strong reasons can be shown, all projects in 
area 5.2 should be consistent with relevant architectures 
developed in area 5.1. The interaction of CAD/CAE 
with CAM (5.3) and FMS (5.4) systems must also be 
taken into account, and techniques under development 
in other areas of ESPRIT must be continuously 
reviewed. 
No C 332/58 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 12.85 
5.2.1. Topics 
CAD/CAE facilities for product and process design 
Adaptation or development of tools and subsystems to 
support integrated CAD/CAE activities, e.g.: 
— product design activities such as project manage­
ment, concept design, preliminary design, analysis 
and simulation, final design, product documenta­
tion management, product configuration manage­
ment. 
— process design activities such as process selection, 
process modelling, process planning, process plan 
simulation, process plan optimization, process 
quality assurance planning, 
— tools specific to different classes of products and 
processes, and to 'group technologies' concepts 
(geometry, dimensions, materials, tolerances, 
process operations type). 
Use of AI techniques in CAD/CAE 
— review developments in artificial intelligence which 
might be applicable to CAD/CAE. Carry out 
development work in appropriate areas. 
— graphics tools to support management and supervi­
sory activity in manufacturing environments. 
Graphics systems 
— to aid decision-making at management and super­
visory levels. 
5.2.2. Current Projects and Projects Under Negotiation 
'Knowledge and Decision Support for Material Handling 
Systems' 
Proj. Ref. 293: B/84 
The project is investigating the applicability of expert 
systems for decision support and will develop a know­
ledge base for modelling material handling systems. The 
objectives are to analyse and define the knowledge neces­
sary to achieve valid assessments for system designs and 
of system operation. The knowledge will be implemented 
in decision support systems and would be used by engi­
neers planning a material handling system. 
'CAD Interfaces' 
Proj. Ref. 322: A/84 
This project concentrates on important interfaces of 
CAD/CAM systems: the CAD data exchange interface, 
the CAD data base interface, the interface to finite 
element analysis and dynamic model optimization, and the Al-based advanced high-level modelling interface. 
The first part of the work has been completed with an 
analysis of the existing CAD/CAM interface standards 
and the establishment of procedures for exchanging 
models between CAD systems. Testing has been carried 
out of high level data transfer between MEDUSA and 
BRA VO. The design and implementation of these inter­
faces will be closely coordinated with international stan­
dardization activity in this area. 
'Development of an Integrated Process and Operations 
Planning System with the Use of Interactive 3D Modell­
ing Technology' 
Proj. Ref 409: B/84 
The objective is to develop an interactive graphics-based 
system for process and operation planning within a manu­
facturing environment. To reduce development costs, the 
overall system will be built from existing and proven sys­
tem components of the project partners. The approach 
will be to achieve a uniform user interface for CAD and 
CAM-systems and secondly to provide a complete simu­
lation of the manufacturing process. 
'Design and specification of configurable graphics subsys­
tem for CIM' 
Proj. Ref. 496: B/84 
The project has two primary goals: 
1. The identification and classification of the differing 
requirements for graphics in the many areas of CIM. 
2. The development of software/hardware prototype 
graphics subsystems that meet the requirements of 1. 
above. 
The first goal has been achieved, the partners have 
carried out an exploratory survey covering hardware, 
software, and man-machine interface requirements 
for graphics of CIM systems and delivered the study 
report. To attain the second goal, the partners are 
currently preparing the design specifications of the 
prototype graphics subsystem and a set of design 
standards based on the use of the Graphics Kernel 
System (GKS) and the Ada programming language. 
'VITAMIN: Visualisation Tools and Modelling Stan­
dards in Manufacturing Industry" 
Proj. Ref. 1038: B/85 
The project aims to produce a set of graphical visualiza­
tion tools, based on modelling standards with the objec­
tive of improving decision-making in production manage­
ment. A wide range of essential management information 
will be addressed, such as business, marketing, produc­
tion management and production monitoring. 
20. 12. 85 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 332/59 
5.2.3. Scope for Further Work 
The topics 'use of AI techniques' and 'graphics 
systems' will be considered in call(s) for proposals to 
be published in 1986. 
R&D area 5.3: Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) 
A computer-aided manufacturing system in this con­
text addresses the real-time management of factory 
operations. A CAM system acts as a high integrity 
information network that monitors a broad spectrum of 
interrelated activities in the manufacturing cycle and 
asserts consequent control on the basis of an overall 
management strategy. 
Design aims of a CAM system should include: 
(i) maximizing assistance to human supervision in 
overall factory operations and in individual pro­
cesses ; 
(ii) processes to be individually programmable; 
(iii) compatibility with systems architectures defined 
in 5.1; 
(iv) possibility for introducing modifications and 
extensions without violating total systems con­
cept. 
5.3.1. Topics 
— define and develop CAM systems in a range of 
industrial environments; 
— apply innovative concepts as they become avail­
able. 
5.3.2. Current Projects and Projects Under Negotiation 
'Open CAM System allowing modular integration into 
factory management of a workshop structure in functional 
cells with various levels of automation' 
Prof Ref 418: A/84 
The purpose of the project is to develop a CAM System 
with an open architecture. This CAM system will be 
applicable to machine as well as assembly activities. 
Although the system is targetted at a specific manufac­
turing environment, the implementation methodologies 
and tools evolved in the course of the project are appli­
cable to a diverse range of manufacturing environments. 
The system will be implemented in two pilot shops (mach­
ine shop and assembly shop), consisting of several cells with various levels of automation. As implementation 
proceeds, a new flexible machining cell, consisting of a 
group of machine tools, measuring machines, materials 
buffering equipment and feeder robots will be incorpor­
ated into the system. The wider applications are relevant 
to the project 477. Liaison is being maintained between 
the two consortia for the mutual benefit of interchanging 
technical information. 
'Control Systems for Integrated Manufacturing: the 
CAM Solution' 
Proj. Ref. 477: A/84 
The project is focused on production activity control 
(PAC), the role of which is to close the loop between prod­
uction planning and execution. The results will be 
especially applicable to small batch manufacturing envi­
ronments. The goal of the project is to design, develop 
and test the software modules required to close the con­
trol loop, reducing human intervention and reaction time 
as much as possible, and relying on data automatically 
captured from the plant. 
The first phase is underway, with groups analyzing three 
related areas: 
— Process: Analysis of manufacturing facilities and 
selection for the implementation of a 
suitable site. 
— Control: Theoretical modelling for planning and 
scheduling the PAC system. 
— Software: Investigation and analysis of suitable 
software tools and techniques required 
for the system. 
Technical liaison is also being maintained with 
project 418. 
'Knowledge Based Real Time Supervision in CIM' 
Proj. Ref. 932: A/85 
The project has 2 main objectives: 
— The design and implementation of a knowledge-
based real time development system oriented to a 
number of CIM application tasks. 
— The installation and evaluation of the system at two 
dissimilar industrial plants. 
The functionality of the system will be demonstrated by 
addressing the problems of real-time interpretation of 
plant data for fault diagnosis; action planning by 
No C 332/60 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 12. 85 
intelligent alarm handling and providing operator support 
data: optimization of throughput, economy and flexibility 
of operation. 
5.3.3. Scope for Further Work 
This area is well covered by existing work and is 
unlikely to be considered for inclusion in call(s) for 
proposals to be published in 1986. 
R&D area 5.4: Flexible Manufacturing Systems 
For industries specializing in the manufacture of a 
wide variety of parts in low and medium volumes, the 
development of highly flexible, high productivity sys­
tems is an important goal. The major task of the sup­
pliers of CIM equipment is to enhance the technology 
required for flexible automation. 
Machining centres for automatic machining of metal 
parts, systems for automatic loading and unloading of 
workpieces, and conveyor systems for automatically 
transferring workpieces from one machining process to 
another, are already available from many sources. A 
problem which still has to be attacked is the integration 
of machining centres into overall CIM systems, with 
proper acknowledgement of human factors. 
Further development is required in the area of auto­
mated assembly systems, and to enhance the capability 
of robots beyond the simple operations at present car­
ried out. Major benefits would be obtained if effective 
communication with the design process could be 
achieved. It is also necessary to take advantage of 
developments in Advanced Information Processing 
(AIP), and simulation systems. 
Research and development are also needed to reach 
two of the principal, and often conflicting, goals of all 
future automated plants, namely maintenance of con­
sistently high product quality and maximum plant 
availability. 
5.4.1. Topics 
Flexible manufacturing systems 
— specification for interfaces between automatic 
equipment: 
definition of FMS systems architecture and subsys­
tems; 
— define and implement pilot FMS in testbed envi­
ronment. Automated assembly 
— computer automated assembly systems; 
— robot systems. 
Plant availability and quality optimization 
— basic plant diagnosis technology; 
— diagnosis formulation; 
— action planning; 
— automated quality control and inspection. 
Advanced control systems and concepts 
— specification of computing requirements for 
subsystem control; 
— incorporation of Advanced Information Processing 
(AIP) for work in system control packages. 
5.4.2. Current Projects and Projects Under Negotiation 
'The Integration of Welded Fabrication within CIM' 
Proj. Ref595: A/84 
The project work is in the area of the development of 
sub-systems and control frameworks for the application 
of welded fabrication in CIM. A coordinated programme 
is being carried out in which methods will be developed 
for generating, structuring, storing, and manipulating 
control and output data at all stages of the fabrication 
process. To enable an integrated development approach, 
the project will concentrate on a specific industrial sector 
and limited product range and the area chosen is ship­
building. However, results generated in this project will 
have a much wider application within fabrication indus­
tries, and the rules for integration developed in this pro­
ject will be applicable to the automation of other fabrica­
tion processes, e.g. high energy electron beam Welding, 
laser welding and friction welding. 
Initially work concentrated in five main areas: 
— Design studies: the definition of product modularisa­
tion, standardization, code requirement and fitness 
for purpose. 
— CIM Architecture/Software development: the 
development of simulation software for resource allo­
cation and line scheduling. In addition inventory 
management, robot simulation software is being 
produced. 
— Welding System Automation -.procedural data han­
dling and real time control of robot welding. 
20. 12.85 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 332/61 
— Quality Assurance: aspects of data processing and 
shop floor monitoring. 
— Production Cell Development: This will be the basis 
of an experimental system employing the hardware 
and software developed in the other areas. 
The project will continue to work towards these goals, 
ultimately in producing specifications for at least two 
advanced fabrication facilities incorporating CIM princi­
ples. 
'Integrated Information Processing for Design, Planning 
and Control of Assembly' 
Proj. Ref 384: A/84 
This project is aimed at demonstrating the principle of an 
integrated process for design, planning and control of 
small batch assemblies. The emphasis of the project is on 
defining and automatically assembling the product, 
rather than on the manufacture of the piece parts. The 
project also aims to demonstrate the concept of an inte­
grated system for the complete assembly process includ­
ing design planning, scheduling and control aspects, con­
sidering all interdependencies and feedbacks from related 
assembly objects and processes. 
Current work has focussed on expert systems and simula­
tion tools with attention to the existing systems for 
design, planning and scheduling an important precursor 
to the demonstrators in these areas. 
'Development of a Flexible Automated Assembly Cell and 
associated Human Factors Study' 
Proj. Ref. 534: A/84 
The project is directed to the evaluation and the develop­
ment of a programmable flexible automated assembly 
cell for mechanical objects of typically 0.5 m3 size. 
Although the concept is based upon the needs of an 
intended user, the project includes an assessment of the 
application of the system to industry generally. The 
project comprises five technological and two human fac­
tor sub-areas. 
The technological areas are the use of robots with various 
other devices, including software development, the 
development of integrated sensors for robotic vision and 
optical data processing, the development of contactless 
inspection including integration, systems integration and a study of the applicability of the technology to future 
manufacturing. The human factors are concerned with 
work organisation and job design within the cell, skill lev­
els, supervision, quality assurance, maintenance and 
training issues and a study of the involvement of 
engineers and scientists in,planning for human needs in 
the cell's operation. 
'Operational Control for Robot System Integration into 
CIM' 
Proj. Ref. 623: A/83-84 
The project is directed to improving the integration of 
robots into computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) 
systems. Based on the design rules and the development 
paths derived in the pilot phase of ESPRIT (Ref. PP. 75) 
the project will establish automated integration facilities 
for the operational areas of planning and programming. 
A prototype of a computer aided planning system for a 
typical industrial application, and an improved CAD 
Robot linkage to be implemented. This will use an off­
line programming system specially designed for robots. 
Graphical simulation requirements to aid robot planning 
and programming as a basic tool of the system will be 
analysed and implemented. A data management strategy 
will be derived to link the robot application into the CIM 
framework. The possibilities for using AI techniques for 
robotic applications, including implicit programming 
methods, will be investigated and methods for simulation 
identified. 
'A Systems Technology for Optimising the Tradeoffs 
between Plant Availability, Product Quality and Safety' 
Proj. Ref. 504: B/84 
This project is directed to the development of a systems 
technology for automating the management of a discrete 
parts manufacturing plant. It will be based on maximiz­
ing their availability, product quality and safety. A high 
percentage of the proposed R&D effort relates to the 
on-line processing of plant machinery health, tool 
performance, product quality and safety data. The ena­
bling technologies include signal processing, expert sys­
tems, system modelling, action planning, sensor network 
and computer system design. 
Work has been carried out reviewing available technol­
ogy in this field and the preparation of a suitable demon­
strator which is now providing live data from machining 
operations to facilitate the development of process models 
to allow diagnosis, action planning and failure recovering 
routines to be developed. 
No C 332/62 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 12. 85 
'DASIQ: Distributed Automated System for Inspection 
and Quality Control' 
Proj.Ref.U36:B/85 
The project is directed at the research and experimental 
application of a new distributed system, DASIQ, for 
inspection and quality control. The work is particularly 
aimed at the development and integration of optical 
inspection techniques for the assessment of surface finish 
and dimensional control The DASIQ system will be inte­
grated with the factory CAD/CAM systems for optimiza­
tion of design-manufacturing processes. 
'Advanced Control Real Time CIM Systems and 
Concepts for Flexible Automation' 
Proj. Ref 809: B/85 
This project intends to develop and implement a real-time 
intelligent CIM system. Based on computing requirement 
specifications, the emphasis is on hierarchical control 
structures. Simulations of multiple manufacturing system 
configurations will be conducted in order to assess the 
adaptability of the system. 
5.4.3. Scope for Further Work 
In this area the following topics will be considered for 
inclusion in call(s) for proposals to be published in 
1986: 
— the integration into CIM of FMSs based on metal 
removal; 
— development of advanced control systems. 
R&D area 5.5: Subsystems and Components microelectronic sub-systems for the control of 
machines, robots and assembly systems on special­
ized VLSI chips. 
5.5.2. Current Projects and Projects under Negotiation 
'Exploitation of Real-time Imaging for Arc Welding' 
Proj. Ref 9: A/83 
In the first year of this project the following tasks were 
carried out: 
— an analysis of potential industrial arc welding tasks, 
which has resulted in the selection of candidate sen­
sing applications in thin section/high production rate 
and thick section/high quality sectors. 
— a survey of image analysis methods and applications. 
— a study of image acquisition and processing 
approaches which would be applicable to the testbed 
sensing applications selected in the first phase. 
— a definition of the possibilities for controlling metal­
lurgical structures (and hence mechanical properties) 
of multipass welded components by precise placement 
of weldbeds. This represents a more severe control 
requirement than either production speed or weld 
soundness criteria. 
— a specification of development approaches and hard­
ware which will be used in subsequent phases of the 
project. 
The project is now focussing on two application areas, 
single and multipass welding. The development of image 
analysis and adaptive control algorithms for both welding 
techniques is underway with the construction of the hard­
ware. 
A number of subsystems and components are required 
to enable the technologies in areas 5.3 and 5.4, thus 
facilitating the development and implementation of 
CIM. In particular, in order to compete successfully in 
world markets for plant automation systems, it is essen­
tial to make maximum use of microelectronics technol­
ogy. 
5.5.1. Topics 
Two topics have been identified as requiring collabora­
tion effort. These are: 
— sensor systems for real time capture and interpreta­
tion of sensor data such as that required by sub-
area 5.4.3 'General Purpose Sensory Controlled Systems for Parts 
Production' 
Proj. Ref 118: A/83 
This project is directed to researching, developing and 
demonstrating the ability to obtain 2.5D and 3D images 
by means of visual, tactile and range sensing. 
Initially seven tasks were defined in the workplan: 
i) User specification study 
ii) System integration framework definition 
Hi) Gray scale sensor development 
20. 12.85 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 332/63 
iv) Tactile sensor development 
v) Range finder development 
vi) Direct 3D sensor development 
vii) Stereoscopic sensor development 
- 'Integrated Electronic Subsystems for Plant Automation' 
Proj. Ref. 179: A/83 
Within this project the functions performed by NC and 
Robot control systems are analysed and divided into sub­
systems. These are being realised as general purpose sub­
system integrated circuits which will be suitable for a 
broad range of applications in NC and Robot control. 
Test circuits have been specified as suitable for VLSI 
application. These are being developed for two specific 
applications while work is also being directed to specify­
ing a co-processor which will support the design of control 
systems and the implementation of VLSI circuits. 
'Integrated Sensor-based Robot System' 
Proj. Ref 278: A/84 
The objective of this project is to develop a sensor-based 
system prototype (vision and tactile), for real time appli­
cations, in cooperation with industrial robots for intelli­
gent handling and/or assembly. Test-bed applications 
are bin-picking, and workpiece handling on a moving 
conveyor belt. 
'Computer-aided thermal Image Technique for Real-time 
Inspection of Composite Material' 
Proj. Ref. 197: A/83 
This project is directed to research into imaging and 
image processing techniques using thermal scanners for 
the development of a real time system for on-line inspec­
tion and monitoring of composite materials and products, 
in a mass production environment. 
In the first phase of this work, image processing equip­
ment has been developed to an operational state suitable 
for experimental purposes. In addition a prototype ther­
mal impulse generator has been produced to support 
experimental aspects of this work. 
5.5.3. Scope for Further Work 
In this area the development of microelectronic subsys­
tems will be considered for inclusion in call(s) for pro­
posals to be published in 1986. However with less 
priority than 5.4 and 5.2. R&D area 5.6: CIM Systems Applications 
To maximise the coherence and strategic impact of the 
CIM sub-programme, swift action is needed to 
encourage application centres in which developments 
in ongoing projects could be demonstrated and refined 
within a framework of integration. 
In addition to providing a focal point for community-
based action in advanced manufacturing, benefits 
would include: 
— promoting awareness of ESPRIT work by demon­
strating ongoing R & D to a large European audi­
ence; 
— highlighting needs, achievements and opportuni­
ties in the area of CIM integration; 
— providing an environment to facilitate fast proto­
typing; 
— catalysing subsequent developments including 
product realisation. 
5.6.1. Topics 
To achieve these objectives, the following projects and 
themes have been identified: 
— CIM application and development centres. 
— General topics for CIM support. 
The following topics are given as examples, but the list 
is non-exhaustive: 
— product design guidelines for automatic produc­
tion; 
— create an understanding and ability to design 
mechanical products for automatic manufacturing; 
— methodologies for selection and configuration of 
CIM components; 
— develop tools and methodologies for selecting CIM 
components and tailoring CIM systems to meet 
specific company needs; 
— economic methodologies for evaluating investment 
in CIM systems; 
— develop tools and methodologies for a correct 
economic evaluation of investment in CIM 
systems; 
— interaction of CIM systems with organization, 
infrastructures and skill requirements; 
— determination of the required charges in organ­
ization, infrastructure and skill requirements conse­
quent upon the introduction of CIM systems; 
— interaction of CIM systems with management 
information systems; 
— definition of data interchange between CIM 
systems andmanagementinformationsystems(MIS). 
The purpose of these activities is to develop tools and 
facilities to promote successful CIM applications. 
No C 332/64 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 12.85 
5.6.2. Current Projects and Projects Under Negotiation 
'Predesign ofFMSfor Small Batch Production of 
Electronic Cards' 
Proj. Ref. 850: B/85 
Preparatory study to explore the provision of facilities to 
support the development and system integration of 
various elements of CIM. The application area focusses 
on PCB (printed circuit boards) production. The intention 
is to provide the service primarily for small and medium 
sized companies. 
'Communication Network for Manufacturing 
Applications' 
Proj. Ref. 955: A/85 
The objective of this project is to define, promote and pro­
vide a multi-vendor network environment for manufactur­
ing applications. The work has been divided into four 
phases: 
— Definition. This will consider the levels of the OS I 
structure relevant to CIM and a network architecture 
based on a hierarchical structure of networks. 
— Demonstration of a network controlling existing 
machine tools. 
— Demonstration of a multilayered network architec­
ture. 
— Examination of very broad band width networking 
technology. 
'Product Design for Automated Manufacture and 
Assembly' 
Proj. Ref. 338: B/84 
The objectives of this project are two-fold. Firstly it is 
necessary to determine the range of manufacturing infor­
mation which must be made available to the designer so 
that products are designed which are compatible with 
automated manufacturing and assembly techniques 
embodied in flexible machining and flexible assembly 
(including robotic assembly) systems. Secondly it is neces­
sary to establish the basis on which this information is 
best made available to the designer using for example 
CAD systems. 
Work has been done on meeting the first objective by the 
collection and collation of product information suitable 
for automated assembly. In parallel work progresses on 
developing a cohesive approach to establishing the 
requirements for product design for automated assembly. 'Data Transfer Between Computer Integrated 
Manufacturing Systems and Management Information 
Systems' 
Proj. Ref. 319: B/84 
The project addresses the linkage of CIM and MIS sys­
tems within the context in which they must operate, 
namely, the management, technological and operational 
infrastructure of the enterprise. This is related to the 
trends in information technology, the functional require­
ments of both hardware, software and operating systems, 
and the CIM vendor industry itself Advances in com­
puter technologies have created the opportunity for 
medium sized enterprises to apply sophisticated MIS-
CIM techniques and hardware/software tools which 
were, up to very recently, only affordable by the largest 
enterprises. This project is therefore directed to actively 
test design concepts, techniques and prototype sub­
systems in medium to small sized manufacturing environ­
ments. 
'Development of Tools for Economic Evaluation of CIM 
in Smaller Manufacturing Companies' 
Proj. Ref. 909: B/85 
The objective of the work is to develop software tools to 
improve the ability of consultants, Chambers of Com­
merce and individual firms to carry out cost benefit 
analyses for investment in CIM. The tools are specifically 
aimed at small and medium-sized manufacturing com­
panies and will be portable to a range of widely-available 
personal computers. 
'Implementation of AI into Subjects for Advanced CIM' 
Proj. Ref. 975: B/85 
This deals with the integration of information about 
products being manufactured in CIM with the CAM 
system. This project is directed at improving the existing 
identification systems (Remote Programmable Trans­
mitter/Re sponder and Interrogator with Artificial Intel­
ligence) in order to meet CIM requirements, and to 
develop of remotely programmable transponders. An ini­
tial test bed for the technology will be motor car manu­
facture and wider applications within CIM are antici­
pated. 
5.6.3. Scope for Further Work 
The topic on Application Centres will be considered 
for inclusion in call(s) for proposals to be published in 
1986 in so far as necessary because of 1985 proposals 
not maturing to contract. The area of mechanical 
engineering is already well-covered by projects under 
negotiation.