PROXIMA: PROlog eXecutIon MAchine

The design and the technological aspects involved in the integration of a high-performance Prolog machine on silicon are described. Many Prolog machines have been implemented by using a large number of boards. Consequently they are expensive, cumbersome, and not yet achievable by industrial standards. There have been many attempts in the US, Japan, and Europe to integrate Prolog engines in silicon, in order to increase performance. The described processor, PROXIMA (PROlog eXecutIon MAchine), is a VLSI Prolog engine suitable to be added onto a commercial workstation. The PROXIMA chip set has been integrated in silicon using a double-metal 0.8 mu m n-well SGS-Thomson proprietary CMOS technology.<
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