I recommend that this proposal be funded as a SGER award at $50,000 for a one-year period. A starting date of 11/01/89 is desirable. Dr. Reed originally submitted this proposal (much too early) for the December 1 deadline date for the NCR program. He claims to have a critical need for funding before we could possibly make an award in that review cycle. It seemed to me that this proposal was an excellent candidate for a SGER award, and Dr. Reed said he wanted to apply for it. The proposal qualifies for the SGER under two of the award conditions: (1) preliminary work on novel and untested ideas. (2) application of new expertise and new approaches to "old research topics. If the work is successful, it could have an enormous impact upon subsequent research and development in coding theory and design of communication systems. This is because algebraic decoding techniques, in contrast to search techniques, are typically capable of implementation with appreciably lower circuit complexity. This allows the use of longer, more effective codes in communication systems within the constraints of receiver/decoder costs. Dr. Reed's preliminary results yielded the first algebraic decoder for a certain Golay code, and further results could do the same for the entire class of quadratic residue codes, and possibly other classes of codes. Dr. Reed has an outstanding reputation as an innovative researcher. He is the developer of the famous Reed-Solomon codes which are extensively used in communication and recording systems.
