Architecture and Applications of DADO: A Large-Scale Parallel Computer for Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

As part of our research on very high pe rforman ce parall el architectures, we have been inv est igating machin ea.rc hit<' ct ur cs spec ially adapted to th e highly effici e nt implementation of a rtificia l int elligence (AJ) software. In the course of our rPsear ch we d es ign ed DADO, a highly parallel , VLSI- based, t.recst ru ct. ured ma chin e, andimpl cmPnted a high-speed algo rithm for production syste ms on a simul ato r for DADO. Subsequent research has convin ced us that DADO ca n s upp o rt many other AJ applications, including the very rapid execution of PROLOG' programs, and a large s har e of the sy mbolic processing typi ca l of co ntemporary knowledge-based sys tems . In this brief re port, we outline the hardware de~ign of a. mod e rate s iz e DADO prot oty pe , comprising 1023 pr oeessing e lement s, which is c urrently underco ns tructi on at Columbia University. W e then sketch thesoft ware base being impleme nt ed on a small 15 processing clement prototype s ystem including several app li cations writt en in Pl'Ljl'vf , a high-lev el languag e d es igned for specifying para ll el co mput at ions on DADO.