Alvey
The Alvey Programme was a
Background
During the early 1980s, Japan invited the United Kingdom to become a part of the Fifth Generation Project.[2] In October 1981, a Department of Industry mission to Japan consisting of academics, civil servants and business representatives explored collaboration opportunities and attended the Fifth Generation conference.[3]: 16 Informed by negotiations between ICL and Fujitsu conducted to "ensure the survival of ICL", suggesting that collaboration would only be possible in "very specific areas agreed upon by individual companies", it was concluded that an emulation of the Japanese approach would be preferable to any attempt at participating in the Japanese programme.[3]: 16–18
In response, a committee was created and was chaired by John Alvey, a technology director at
Alvey was not involved in the programme itself.[6]
The main focus areas of the Alvey Programme were as follows:[7]
- Advanced Microelectronics and VLSI
- Intelligent Knowledge Based Systems (IKBS) or Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Software Engineering
- Man-Machine Interaction (including Natural Language Processing)
Alongside these areas, the provision of a communications infrastructure was a component of the programme.[8] Various areas of endeavour were incorporated into the main focus areas. For example, systems architecture, specifically parallel processing, featured in the VLSI endeavour.[9]
References
- ISBN 9781850914075.
- ^ "Alvey Report Background and Introduction". Computing at Chilton: 1961-1985. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
- ^ ISBN 0-262-15038-7.
- ISBN 3540439595.
- ^ ISBN 9781351265584.
- ^ "One small step forward is one giant leap backwards for government".
- ^ "The Alvey Programme Overview". Computing at Chilton: 1961-1985. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
- ^ "Alvey Report Summary of Recommendations". Computing at Chilton: 1961-1985. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
- ^ Blackburn, J. F. (22 August 1985). The Alvey Conference in Edinburgh: A Review of the UK's Research Program in Computer Science. US Office of Naval Research. p. 3. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
- ISBN 0-262-15038-7
- Chris Rigatuso, Takeshi Tachi, Dennis Sysvester & Mark Soper, Collaboration between Firms in Information Technology, Berkeley, EE 290X Group G.
- Richard Tyler, The Daily Telegraph, Feb 9th 2010. [1]