Lisp Machine of Kobe University, FAST LISP

Lisp Machine of Kobe University, FAST LISP

Lisp Machine of Kobe University, FAST LISP


Manufactured in 1978〜1979
Manufactured by Department of Systems Engineering, Kobe University
Owner Graduate School of System Informatics, Kobe University
Location of historical materials Entrance lobby of the Graduate School of System Informatics, Kobe University, 1-1 Rokkodaicho, Nada-ku, Kobe 657-8501 Japan
Visitor information Open to the public (Reservation required)
Contact Graduate School of System Informatics, Kobe University,
Tel.+81-78-803-6257

This computer was implemented by Kazuo Taki, Yukio Kaneda and others of Kobe University in 1978 - 1979, using a microprogrammed Lisp interpreter on bit-sliced processors (AMD 2903s), aiming for fast execution of Lisp expressions. The system was in fact the first high speed Lisp Machine in Japan. The machine was named FAST LISP.

It consisted of a processor module and a memory module of 64K 32 bit words, and had an LSI-11 as the front end interface.

The processor module contained a 16 word register file, a high speed hardware stack of 4K 16 bit words, and a microprogram memory of 4K 56 bit words. An AMD 2910 controlled the microprogram sequence.

The execution speed of FAST LISP for problems of the second Lisp contest was slightly slower than Lisp processors on mainframes such as HLISP and OLISP, even though FAST LISP was an interpreter. A Lisp
compiler, implemented after the contest, recorded much faster execution.

The basic architecture of FAST LISP was followed by the later Lisp Machines, like FACOM α or ELIS. FAST LISP is being exhibited at the entrance lobby of the Graduate School of System Informatics.