A preliminary survey of artificial intelligence machines

Abstract

This paper is first attempt at a survey of concrete and abstract machines relevant to AI research, inspired by some recent developments in personal computers. In particular, we consider machines supporting higher-level programming languages used in AI, mainly LISP. The emphasis will be on gaining a global perspective on the emerging field of AI machines rather than on a detailed treatment of specific issues. Thus, readers who are specialists in one of the fields touched (e.g., in parallel and associative machines) will not learn anything new about their particular field (on the contrary, they may contribute additional AI-relevant material to later versions of the survey). However, particularly for AI researchers worrying about the efficiency of their systems, this survey may provide a quick access to this important new research areas. For more specific questions the references in the extensive topic-indexed bibliography should be consulted.