ALLEN@bio-medical-physics.aberdeen.ac.uk (07/13/89)
There have been one or two queries recently about....
AI languages on transputers
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The two commercially available offerings of which I am aware are (1) CSProlog
and (2) Strand.
(1) Communicating Sequential Prolog was designed by Multilogic Ltd (Peter
Kacsuk et al.). This seems to be a thoughtfully designed implementation of the
Edinburgh syntax adapted and extended for parallelism, together with a nice
graphical interface. Interpreted and compiled versions are available.
Available for PC, transputers (mono and multi) in PC, VAX, UNIX.
An object-oriented extension (CSO Prolog) and an expert system
shell (ALLEX) are also available.
They are distributed by:
Densitron Computers Ltd.
Unit 4 Airport Trading Estate
Biggin Hill
Kent
TN16 3BW
England.
Tel. +44 959 76331.
(2) Strand88, designed by AI Ltd. This parallel logic language was designed
very much with portability in mind (it compiles to an abstract machine).
Available for Sun workstation (now) and for transputers in PCs (soon).
(There are also versions for iPSC/2, Meiko, Sequent.)
Strand Software Technologies
Greycaine Road
Watford
Hets.
WD2 4JP
England.
Tel. +44 923 247707.
A *rough* comparison:
CS Prolog Strand88
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syntax Prolog (Edin.) GHC Prolog
semantics Prolog Functional
backtracking Distributed No
parallelism explicit implicit
grain coarse fine
ext. languages any (through C) any
OO extension yes no
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This was the situation as of June 89 ("Software for Parallel Computers
Seminar"). No doubt someone rich enough to go to "AI and Communicating Process
Architecture" will tell the list more next week.....
Alastair Allen
Depts of Engineering Tel: +44 224 272501
and BioMedical Physics or +44 224 681818 x. 52746
University of Aberdeen. Email: a.allen@uk.ac.abdn