ASTEC (Advanced Software TEChnology) was a VINNOVA  competence center  in the area of software technology. Its purpose was to develop and support industrially applicable techniques for software specification, design, and development. It brought new technology into industrial applications and carried out academic research on industrially relevant problems in software development. High-level specification and programming languages, together with tools for specification, analysis, validation, simulation, and compilation were central topics of the center. Particular emphasis was put on methods supporting the development of software for communication and control applications.