  The production of the initial state of the QGP in very high-energy $AA$
collisions is discussed within the framework of perturbative QCD and
saturation. The next-to-leading order computation of the transverse energy of
minijets is reviewed. Saturation of parton production, conjectured to occur at
a dynamically determinable perturbative scale, leads to estimates of the
initial densities. The final state multiplicities are predicted by assuming an
isentropic hydrodynamical further evolution. Comparison with RHIC data is
shown.
