The Fifth Generation: Japan's Challenge

In 1982, Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Administration, together with eight leading Japanese computer companies, launched a project to develop the fifth-generation computers. So far the Japanese government and Japanese private industry have each contributed $300 million toward the project, in an attempt to develop radically new forms of computer systems. The real significance is not the money itself, however, but the cooperation among government and Japanese industries and the writing of blank check for computer development. Afraid of being left behind, other countries including the United States have started similar projects. The following are some of the expected characteristics of the fifth-generation computers. Only time will tell, of course, whether these expectations are correct.

- Most computers of the fourth and earlier generations can carry out only one arithmetical or Boolean operation* at a time. A key to the fifth-generation computers is expected to be the parallel processing, in which hundreds or thousands of operations are carried out simultaneously.

- The Japanese believed that the fifth-generation computers will be based on logical inference rather than on arithmetical and Boolean calculations. The Japanese fifth-generation project has adopted the programming language PROLOG (PROgramming in LOGic), which is based on logical inference.

- The fifth-generation computer systems are expected to make extensive use of the techniques of artificial intelligence, which simulate some aspects of human thought. Such systems might communicate with users and programmers in natural languages, rather than in specialized computer languages. They might solve problems without having to be told step-by-step how to arrive at the solution. Instead, they would draw on knowledge and problem-solving techniques previously collected from human experts in the fields in which the problem arises. Such expert systems have already come in use.

Comments:

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reliability надійність, імовірність того. Що пристрій у заданих умовах і протягом заданого часу безвідмовно вико­нуватиме потрібні від нього (закладені в) нього функції

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storage capacity об'єм пам'яті

semiconductor напівпровідник; клас матеріалів (наприклад, гер­маній і кремній), який за електропровідністю знахо­диться між провідниками (такими, як мідь і срібло) та ізоляторами (такими, як скло і гума)

punched cards перфокарта; паперовий носій інформації, пошире­ний до появи ПК

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