Introduction

The purpose of the RD8 program [1] is to develop radiation hard strip and pixel detectors from GaAs material as part of the research and development projects initiated by CERN for the LHC. This paper outlines the latest results with regard to the understanding of the operation of GaAs detectors, their radiation hardness, and the present level of development of ATLAS design strip and pixel detectors. The pixel detectors have been tested within the RD19 collaboration [1] using the latest LHC pixel readout chip.