The creation of an alternating sequential/parallel Lisp machine

Thesis/Dissertation · Sun Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1989

OSTI ID:5897173

Eberly, J P

The theory, design, and fabrication of an alternating sequential/parallel Lisp machine (ASPLM) is described. The ASPLM provides an environment for symbolic computation, capable of solving artificial intelligence problems using parallel algorithms. The ASPLM is an innovative hardware/software system, resulting from the integration of the following new ideas: an extensible hardware architecture which directly supports the alternating sequential/parallel (ASP) methodology, a coordinated garbage collection mechanism for multicomputers, an efficient Lisp identifier-passing scheme, a tokenized protocol for the transmission of symbolic Lisp expressions, and Lisp language extensions which support parallel programming. This dissertation covers the following topics: Background - The critical decisions in designing the ASPLM architecture were based on a survey of existing parallel computer architectures. A comparison between the ASPLM and other modern Lisp machine architectures demonstrates the relevance and importance of this research. ASPLM architecture - The fundamental components of the ASPLM architecture are described. The host-slave communications scheme, which shows how symbolic expressions can be efficiently processed on this architecture, is presented. Hardware design - Important aspects of the ASPLM hardware organization are discussed. A complete description of the host computer, the host interface, the bus repeater, and the slave processors is provided. Schematic diagrams and photographs of the ASPLM hardware are included. Software design - An analysis of the software organization reveals the close interrelationships between the various component modules which constitute the ASPLM Lisp system. The ASPLM Lisp system software is written in the C language and 68000 assembler. All source code is included.

• Research Organization: Cincinnati Univ., OH (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5897173
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
990200* -- Mathematics & Computers
ALGORITHMS
ARRAY PROCESSORS
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
COMMUNICATIONS
COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE
COMPUTER CODES
COUNTING TECHNIQUES
DECISION MAKING
DESIGN
DIAGRAMS
ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS
FABRICATION
GRAPHS
LISP
MATHEMATICAL LOGIC
PARALLEL PROCESSING
PROGRAMMING
PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
SEQUENTIAL CIRCUITS
SEQUENTIAL SCANNING