The Japanese national Fifth Generation project: Introduction, survey, and evaluation

Projecting a great vision of intelligent systems in the service of the economy and society, the Japanese government in 1982 launched the national Fifth Generation Computer Systems (FGCS) project. The project was carried out by a central research institute, ICOT, with personnel from its member-owners, the Japanese computer manufacturers (JCMs) and other electronics industry firms. The project was planned for ten years, but continues through year eleven and beyond. ICOT chose to focus its efforts on language issues and programming methods for logic programming, supported by special hardware. Sequential ‘inference machines’ (PSI) and parallel ‘inference machines’ (PIM) were built. Performances of the hardware-software hybrid was measured in the range planned (150 million logical inferences per second). An excellent system for logic programming on parallel machines was constructed (KL1). However, applications were done in demonstration form only (not deployed). The lack of a stream of applications that computer customers found effective, and the sole use of a language outside the mainstream, Prolog, led to disenchantment among the JCMs.