The architecture of lisp machines

Journal Article · Sun Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1987 · Computer; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/MC.1987.1663507· OSTI ID:6684161

Pleszkun, A R; Thazhuthaveetil, M J

Lisp has been a popular programming language for well over 20 years and has become the premier language of artificial intelligence research. Recent interest in fifth generation computer systems has sparked renewed interest in systems for the efficient execution of Lisp and Lisp-like languages. There are two main reasons for Lisp's popularity: extensibility and flexibility. Lisp's extensibility derives from the capability that it provides to build powerful, friendly systems starting with just a few basic primitives and data types. Lisp is dynamically typed and ideally suited for incremental program development, making it a good choice for the fast prototyping of software systems. Several current symbolic manipulation and algebraic systems, design and graphic description systems, expert systems, and other heavily-used non-numeric systems are also based on an underlying Lisp system. Typically, these systems do not run efficiently due to the large semantic gap between list-manipulating languages like Lisp and the conventional von Neumann machine. In this survey, the authors the author discuss what takes place during typical Lisp execution. Based on this, the authors enumerate the runtime requirements of a Lisp system and identify potential obstacles to good machine performance. The authors provide a classification of the Lisp machines that they encountered during the survey, and examine the techniques employed in these machines to cater to Lisp's runtime requirements.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Wisconsin
• OSTI ID: 6684161
• Journal Information: Computer; (United States), Journal Name: Computer; (United States) Vol. 20:3; ISSN CPTRB
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
990210* -- Supercomputers-- (1987-1989)
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE
COMPUTER CODES
COMPUTER GRAPHICS
COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN
EXECUTIVE CODES
EXPERT SYSTEMS
LISP
MAN-MACHINE SYSTEMS
PERFORMANCE
PROGRAMMING
PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
RESEARCH PROGRAMS