Science & Technology Chip Developed For Artificial Intelligence

48 EE December 1988 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Chip developed for Artificial Intelligence Three chips-an object-oriented mem- ory management unit, a programmable sequencer, and a 40-bit arithmetic an logic unit-are said to be capable of for- ming the processor for the world"s first fifth-generation computer, capable to apply artificial intelligence and to oper- ate hundreds of times faster on many tasks than all but the most expensive mainframe computers. The circuits have been designed by Linn Smart of Glasgow Computing and are now being developed for use in the popular Sun-3 workstation manufac- tured by California"s Sun Microsystems. The development pitches Linn Smart head-to-head against two United States electronics companies hoping to dominate the AI market: the giant Texas Instruments, which has already fielded an AI board for Apple PCs, and AI specialist, Symbolics, which is also hat- ching plans to embed its AI chips into PCs and workstations. Linn Smart makes light of the ...