Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!seismo!hao!hplabs!sri-unix!PEREIRA@SRI-AI.ARPA From: PEREIRA@SRI-AI.ARPA Newsgroups: net.ai Subject: Re: Prolog For The Vax Message-ID: <2585@sri-arpa.UUCP> Date: Sat, 18-Jun-83 15:49:21 EDT Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.2585 Posted: Sat Jun 18 15:49:21 1983 Date-Received: Wed, 29-Jun-83 05:25:37 EDT Lines: 32 [Reprinted from the PROLOG Digest.] As a result of the paranoia induced by the Japanese 5th Generation proposals, there was a lot of discussion about what the UK should do to keep up with the foreign competition in AI and computing in general. Eventually several government initiatives where started, amounting to several 100 million dollars spread over five years or so. In particular, the Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC), whose closest US analogue is the NSF, started the Intelligent Knowledge Based Systems initiative (IKBS), which is applied AI under a different name (it seems the name "AI" is not very popular in UK government and academic circles). Discussions sponsored by the IKBS initiative have decided on a common software base, built around Unix {a trademark of Bell Labs.}, Prolog (POPLOG and C-Prolog) and Lisp (Franz). The machines to be used are VAXes and PERQs (the UK computer company ICL builds PERQs under license, have implemented a derivative of Unix on it, so this is a case of "support your local computer manufacturer"). The fact that none of the systems mentioned above is nearly the ideal for AI research is recognized by many of the UK researchers, but less so by the administrators. Efforts to build a really efficient portable compiler-based Prolog that would be for the new machines what DEC-10/20 Prolog is for the machines it runs on have been hampered by the sluggish response of The Bureaucrats, and by uncertainty about how that huge amount of money was going to be allocated. However, implementation of a portable compiler - based Prolog is now going on at Edinburgh. Robert Rae is certainly in a better position than I to describe how the project is progressing. -- Fernando Pereira