For the second time the International Workshop on Responsive Com puter Systems has brought together a group of international experts from the fields of real-time computing, distributed computing, and fault tolerant systems. The two day workshop met at the splendid facilities at the KDD Research and Development Laboratories at Kamifukuoka, Saitama, in Japan on October 1 and 2, 1992. The program included a keynote address, a panel discussion and, in addition to the opening and closing session, six sessions of submitted presentations. The keynote address "The Concepts and Technologies of Depend able and Real-time Computer Systems for Shinkansen Train Control" covered the architecture of the computer control system behind a very responsive, i. e. , timely and reliable, transport system-the Shinkansen Train. It has been fascinating to listen to the operational experience with a large fault-tolerant computer application. "What are the Key Paradigms in the Integration of Timeliness and Reliability?" was the topic of the lively panel discussion. Once again the pro's and con's of the time-triggered versus the event-triggered paradigm in the design of a real-time systems were discussed. The eighteen submitted presentations covered diverse topics about important issues in the design of responsive systems and a session on progress reports about leading edge research projects. Lively discussions characterized both days of the meeting. This volume contains the revised presentations that incorporate some of the discussions that occurred during the meeting.

Responsive Computer Systems: Steps Towards Fault-Tolerant Real-Time Systems provides an extensive treatment of the most important issues in the design of modern Responsive Computer Systems. It lays the groundwork for a more comprehensive model that allows critical design issues to be treated in ways that more traditional disciplines of computer research have inhibited. It breaks important ground in the development of a fruitful, modern perspective on computer systems as they are currently developing and as they may be expected to develop over the next decade. Audience: An interesting and important road map to some of the most important emerging issues in computing, suitable as a secondary text for graduate level courses on responsive computer systems and as a reference for industrial practitioners.

Responsive Computing brings together in one place important contributions and state-of-the-art research results in this rapidly advancing area. Responsive Computing serves as an excellent reference, providing insight into some of the most important issues in the field.

Artificial Intelligence and Object-Oriented Technologies to Searching: An Algorithmic Tour

NATO's Division of Scientific and Environmental Affairs sponsored this Advan ced Study Institute because it was felt to be timely to cover this important and challengjng subject for the first time in the framework of NATO's ASI programme. The significance of real-time systems in everyones' life is rapidly growing. The vast spectrum of these systems can be characterised by just a few examples of increasing complexity: controllers in washing machines, air traffic control systems, control and safety systems of nuclear power plants and, finally, future military systems like the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). The import ance of such systems for the well-being of people requires considerable efforts in research and development of highly reliable real-time systems. Furthermore, the competitiveness and prosperity of entire nations now depend on the early app lication and efficient utilisation of computer integrated manufacturing systems (CIM), of which real-time systems are an essential and decisive part. Owing to its key significance in computerised defence systems, real-time computing has also a special importance for the Alliance. The early research and development activities in this field in the 1960s and 1970s aimed towards improving the then unsatisfactory software situation. Thus, the first high-level real-time languages were defined and developed: RTL/2, Coral 66, Procol, LTR, and PEARL. In close connection with these language develop ments and with the utilisation of special purpose process control peripherals, the research on real-time operating systems advanced considerably.

Computer Systems and Water Resources