ZMOB: A New Conputing Engine for AI

Abstract

A new research multiprocessor named ZMOB is described, and its si~nificance to AI research is surveyed and character1zed. ZMOB, under current construction and scheduled for completion late Fall 1981 is a 256 processor machine with a high speed interprocessor communications system called the "cqnveyor belt", a non-blocking, 20 megabyte/second message switcher. Because of its large number of processors, high computational throughput (100 million ins~ructions/ s ecl, lar Ge cumulative high speed memor.y {16 megabytes , high interprocessor communications bandwidt , and external communications and sensing channels, ZMOB opens some new areas of exploration in objectoriented modeling, knowledge-based and domain expert systems, intelligent sensin6 and robotics, ana distributed perceptual and cogn1tive modeling. The paper attempts to blend a description of ZMOB'e hardware with ideas about where and how it fits into various types of AI research.