In September 1976, ICF staff organised 5 one-day meetings to assess user requirements for applications software support in selected areas. The meetings reported back in March 1977 and 5 informal groups were set up for one year to advise RL about their short term needs.
In May 1978, the 5 groups reported on their needs and ICFC approved the establishment of 4 SIGs in Finite Elements (SIGFE), Electromagnetics (SIGEM), Artificial Intelligence (SIGAI) and Circuit Design (SIGCD) - two informal groups were merged into a single SIG. Three further SIGs in CAAD, Control Engineering and Tools for Interactive Programming were established over the next few months.
Over the next several months these SIGs addressed their detailed funding requirements and successfully made their cases to ICFC for their work programme. By the end of 1981 all 7 SIGs were fully established and reporting regularly to ICFC on their activities, which were concentrated on developing and procuring applications packages and supporting them across and beyond the ICF. The majority but not all of the effort was based at RAL. SIGCAAD and SIGAI were run from Edinburgh. SIGCE had a strong involvement from UMIST, Kingston and Warwick. The 7 SIGS were:
The software varied from the purchase of existing packages to the development of new packages or libraries. Without this software, the massive increase in hardware available would have been of limited value to UK engineers.
Libraries, packages and languages developed by the SIGs still exist in 2005 and some, or their off-springs, are still under active development nearly 30 years later.
