DTI support for semiconductor technology research

A major change in allocating UK Government funds for supporting all areas of research which relate to Information Technology (IT) has been occurring over the past year or so. The former Alvey Directorate has now emerged as the Information Engineering Directorate (IED), a new name that reflects a number of changes to the structure of support for research and development in IT within both the Department of Trade and Industry and the Science and Engineering Research Council. The planned research programmes have been grouped into three main areas. The first area is devices, including silicon and compound semiconductors such as gallium arsenide, and other work on advanced semiconductor materials. The second is systems architecture and third is systems engineering. The author is concerned particularly with the UK programme in GaAs and discusses its current position. Complementary activities are mentioned and future objectives briefly considered