1984 Reports

An Overview of the DADO Parallel Computer

Lerner, Mark D.; Maguire, Gerald Q.; Stolfo, Salvatore

DADO is a special purpose parallel computer designed for the rapid execution of artificial intelligence expert systems. This article discusses the DADO hardware and software systems with emphasis on the question of granularity. DADO is designed as a fine-grain machine constructed from many thousands of processing elements (PEs) interconnected in a complete binary tree. Two prototype systems, DADOI and DAD02, are detailed. Each PE of these prototypes consists of a commercially available microprocessor chip, memory Chips, and an additional semicustom I/O processor designed at Columbia University. The software includes a kernel and parallel languages. Under development are several artificial intelligence systems, including a production system interpreter, a logic programming language, and an expert system building tool.