The new generation of computer architecture

Abstract

Four major areas of research are involved in attempting to identify the fifth generation of computers (cir. 1990). The investigation of: knowledge processing systems, data and demand driven computers, integrating communications and computers, and VLSI processor architectures. From these four areas, two approaches for the fifth generation are emerging: one “revolutionary” - a parallel logic machine supporting knowledge processing applications, and the other “evolutionary” - a decentralised control flow system consisting of a network of heterogeneous processors. This paper describes the above four areas of research and discusses how their computing technologies are converging to produce fifth generation computers. It then contrasts the revolutionary logic machine approach adopted by Japan's Fifth Generation Project, and favoured by the artificial intelligence community, with the evolutionary control flow computer approach favoured by the data communications and microelectronics communities.