JAIST Collection of Symbolic Processing Computers

Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) in Nomi, Ishikawa, preserves many symbolic processing computers such as LISP machine ELIS developed by Nippon Telegraph Corporation (NTT). These machines are exhibited as JAIST Collection of Symbolic Processing Computers.

In the late 1970s the Musashino Electrical Communication Laboratories of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation started the research on LISP machines and manufactured prototypes. In the late 1980s NTT developed commercial products of ELIS workstations and NTT-IT put ELIS-8100 and ELIS-8200 on the market.

This collection includes ELIS prototypes, many kinds of ELIS commercial products, their parts and related documents and materials. It also includes ICOT PSI and other symbolic processing computers. Dynamic preservation of some machines has been tried. In August 2010, ELIS Revival Festival was held as a part of JAIST 20th anniversary events. ELIS workstations and other machines were exhibited and some of their operations were demonstrated.

JAIST Collection of Symbolic Processing Computers is located in the building of School of Information Science. Major preserved artifacts are as follows:

• ELIS prototypes: Hydrogen, VX-2000
• ELIS commercial products: ELIS-8100series，ELIS-8200series
• ELIS board: ELIS/VME board, ELIS/PC CPU board, ELIS/PC front end
• ELIS VLSI: ELIS VLSI chip wafer, ELIS VLSI chip
• Others: CELIS, TAO/SILENT, PSI (ICOT), Ochanomizu No.5 (Scalable parallel computer developed by the University of Tokyo）