Although the original definition of Phase 1 was the support of all facilities currently available on the HP1000 system, it became evident that this task needed to be broken down into smaller units. Several precursors of the NCCS currently form a completely independent VLBI observing system, which forms in essence the core of the new system. The first phase of the project was thus envisaged to be the reworking ( in an integrated fashion ) of the hardware and software components of the embryo VLBI system into their final NCCS form.