Fifth Generation Computer Systems: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 20:36, 24 July 2023

Revision as of 11:57, 19 August 2023

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{{Tone|date=February 2019}}

The '''Fifth Generation Computer Systems ''' ('''FGCS''') was a 10-year initiative begun in 1982 by Japan's [[Ministry of International Trade and Industry]] (MITI) to create computers using [[massively parallel computing]] and [[logic programming]]. It aimed to create an "epoch-making computer" with supercomputer-like performance and to provide a platform for future developments in [[artificial intelligence]]. FGCS was ahead of its time, and its excessive ambitions led to commercial failure. However, on a theoretical level, the project spurred the development of [[concurrent logic programming]].

The term "fifth generation" was intended to convey the system as being advanced: In the [[history of computing hardware]], there were four "generations" of computers. Computers using [[vacuum tube]]s were called the first generation; [[transistor]]s and [[diode]]s, the second; [[integrated circuit]]s, the third; and those using [[microprocessor]]s, the fourth. Whereas previous computer generations had focused on increasing the number of logic elements in a single CPU, the fifth generation, it was widely believed at the time, would instead turn to massive numbers of CPUs to gain performance.

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* Inference computer technologies for knowledge processing

* Computer technologies to process large-scale data bases and [[knowledge base]]s

* High -performance workstations

* Distributed functional computer technologies

* Super-computers for scientific calculation

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The Axioms typically used are universal axioms of a restricted form, called [[Horn clauses|Horn-clauses]] or [[Definite clause|definite-clauses]]. The statement proved in a computation is an existential statement.{{Citation needed|date=February 2021}} The proof is constructive, and provides values for the existentially quantified variables: these values constitute the output of the computation.

Logic programming was thought of as something that unified various gradients of computer science ([[software engineering]], [[databases]], [[computer architecture]] and [[artificial intelligence]]). It seemed that logic programming was a key missing connection between [[knowledge engineering]] and parallel computer architectures.

== Results ==

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After having influenced the [[consumer electronics]] field during the 1970s and the [[automotive]] world during the 1980s, the Japanese had developed a strong reputation. The launch of the FGCS project spread the belief that parallel computing was the future of all performance gains, producing a wave of apprehension in the computer field. Soon parallel projects were set up in the US as the [[Strategic Computing Initiative]] and the [[Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation]] (MCC), in the UK as [[Alvey]], and in Europe as the [[European Strategic Program on Research in Information Technology]] (ESPRIT), as well as the [[European Computer‐Industry Research Centre]] (ECRC) in [[Munich]], a collaboration between [[International Computers Limited|ICL]] in Britain, [[Groupe Bull|Bull]] in France, and [[Siemens]] in Germany.

The project ran from 1982 to 1994, spending a little less than ¥57 billion (about US$320 million) total.<ref name=Odagiri/> After the FGCS Project, [[Ministry of International Trade and Industry|MITI]] stopped funding large-scale computer research projects, and the research momentum developed by the FGCS Project dissipated. However MITI/ICOT embarked on a neural-net project{{which|reason=which project exactly?|date=July 2022}} which some called the Sixth Generation Project in the 1990s, with a similar level of funding.<ref>{{cite book |last1=MIZOGUCHI |first1=FUMIO |title=Prolog and its Applications: A Japanese perspective |date=14 December 2013 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-4899-7144-9 |page=ix |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uxv3BwAAQBAJ&pg=PR9 |language=en}}</ref> Per-year spending was less than 1% of the entire R&D expenditure of the electronics and communications equipment industry. For example, the project's highest expenditure year was 7.2 million yen in 1991, but IBM alone spent 1.5 billion dollars (370 billion yen) in 1982, while the industry spent 2150 billion yen in 1990.<ref name=Odagiri/>

=== Concurrent logic programming ===

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=== Commercial failure ===

Five running [[Parallel Inference Machine]]s (PIM) were eventually produced: PIM/m, PIM/p, PIM/i, PIM/k, PIM/c. The project also produced applications to run on these systems, such as the parallel [[database management system]] Kappa, the [[legal reasoning system]] ''[[HELIC-II]]'', and the [[automated theorem prover]] ''[[MGTP]]'', as well as bioinformatics applications to [[bioinformatics]].

The FGCS Project did not meet with commercial success for reasons similar to the [[Lisp machine]] companies and [[Thinking Machines Corporation|Thinking Machines]]. The highly parallel computer architecture was eventually surpassed in speed by less specialized hardware (for example, Sun workstations and [[Intel]] [[x86]] machines).