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From Washington: The STARS program
In 1979 the Department of Defense started its “software initiative,” an effort to maintain U.S. leadership in computer technology for support of its military systems. The “software initiative” evolved into the Software Technology for Adaptable Reliable Systems program (STARS), first outlined in the “Strategy for a DoD Software Initiative” in October 1982 and later refined in the “STARS Program Strategy” in March 1983. STARS is intended to address DoD software problems in the same way the Very High Speed Integrated Circuits1 program (VHSIC) is intended to ameliorate DoD hardware limitations in defense systems. The basic plan is a cooperative effort of government, industry, and academia in software technology. Industry is offered contractual incentives; both industry and academia are encouraged to contribute their best talent.
From Washington: The robot revolution: an interview with James Albus
There is growing awareness among U.S. manufacturers that time is running short to reorganize production processes and begin investment programs for new technology. Sales of accessories—robots, computer controls, and materials-handling systems—are expected to climb to $30 billion world-wide by 1996, compared with the 1982 total of $4 billion.* There is also much discussion about the feasibility of Japan's plans for a fifth generation of computers the danger of their outstripping us, and, in general, what the advent of robotics will do to the quality of life. Do you see the pervasive use of robots as a practical reality?
This is a comment on “File Archival Techniques Using Data Compression” by Michael Pechura [Communications, Sept. 1982, p. 605]. We approached the data compression problem with the aim of maximizing the saving in archival storage over all files for which archival storage was necessary. We also wanted a routine which was reasonably economic in use of system resource.
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