Fifth Generation Computer Systems

The Fifth Generation Computer Systems (FGCS) was a big project that started in 1982 in Japan. The country's Ministry of International Trade and Industry wanted to build computers that could think more like humans using something called massively parallel computing and logic programming. The goal was to make a very powerful computer that could help create new advances in artificial intelligence.

The name "fifth generation" was special because it showed how advanced these computers were supposed to be. Before this, there had been four "generations" of computers. The first used vacuum tubes, the second used transistors and diodes, the third used integrated circuits, and the fourth used microprocessors. This new fifth generation aimed to make computers even faster by using many small computers working together.

Even though the project was very ahead of its time and helped a lot in developing new ways for computers to work together, it did not become a big success in business. Still, it was an important step in learning about smart computers.

Background

In the 1960s and early 1970s, people talked a lot about "generations" of computer hardware. They organized these into three groups:

1. First generation: Thermionic vacuum tubes from the mid-1940s. The IBM 650 was an example of a first-generation computer.
2. Second generation: Transistors from 1956. These were much smaller than vacuum tubes, used less power, and created less heat. The IBM 7090 was a second-generation computer.
3. Third generation: Integrated circuits (silicon chips) from 1964. These chips held many transistors and were used in computers like the IBM 360/91.

Japan made computers by following ideas from the U.S. and Britain until the mid-1970s. Then, Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry decided to look into the future of computing. They asked experts for ideas and started using the term "fifth-generation computer."

MITI had helped Japan succeed in many areas like steel, oil tankers, cars, consumer electronics, and computer memory. They believed the future was in information technology. However, the Japanese language was hard for computers to handle, so they asked experts for help. They focused on several areas, including computers that could understand knowledge, handle large amounts of data, and perform scientific calculations very quickly.

Project launch

The goal was to create special computers for smart tasks using a method called logic programming. They wanted to build a very powerful computer that could work like a supercomputer and handle big collections of information. This computer would use logic programming to organize and find data. They planned to build this computer over ten years, with three years for planning, four years for building parts, and three more years to finish a working model.

In 1982, Japan's government decided to start this project and created a group called the Institute for New Generation Computer Technology. This group worked with many Japanese computer companies. The project aimed to help Japan become a leader in computer technology and share its discoveries with the world. Logic programming was chosen because it could bring together many areas of computer science, like designing software, managing information, building computer parts, and creating smart machines.

Results

After building a strong reputation in areas like consumer electronics and automotive fields, Japan launched the FGCS project. This led many to believe that parallel computing would be the future of better computers, causing other countries to start similar projects.

The FGCS project ran from 1982 to 1994 and cost about ¥57 billion (US$320 million). After it ended, large-scale computer research projects were no longer funded by MITI, and the momentum from FGCS faded. However, MITI started a new project focused on neural networks in the 1990s with similar funding.

The FGCS project helped develop concurrent logic programming. A new programming language called Concurrent Prolog was invented, which changed the project's focus to this area. This work inspired other programming languages and helped grow the field of concurrent logic programming.

Even though the FGCS project created working machines and useful applications, it did not succeed commercially. The special computers it made were slower than regular computers that were already available. The project also missed out on new developments like graphical user interfaces, the internet, and better data analysis tools. Because of these issues, the FGCS machines could not compete in the market.

The project was ahead of its time, though. Its research helped pave the way for future developments in parallel computing, which became important as computer speeds reached new levels in the 2000s. Today, many computers and game consoles use parallel processors, showing how the ideas from the FGCS project have become important in modern technology.