To: Distribution
From: David Kahaner ONRFE [kahaner@xroads.cc.u-tokyo.ac.jp]
Re: Fifth Generation Computer Systems project (FGCS)
11 Sept 1990

Although I have been asked about this project many times I have not 
delved into it because FGCS is already very well known in the West and is 
in the final years of a ten year life.  Also, as its focus is on non-
numerical computation I am more interested in other topics.  Nevertheless 
you should be aware that an excellent readable description has been 
printed in the ICOT Journal, No. 27 1990, pp21-30, by Takashi Kurozumi, 
who is the Deputy Director of the ICOT Research Center.  

ICOT (Institute for New Generation Computer Technology) is the central 
organization responsible for the research on the Fifth Generation 
project. The project's purpose is to provide the fundamental research for 
new (parallel) information processing systems in the 1990s.  ICOT's staff 
of about 100 researchers are mostly drawn from Japanese corporations and 
laboratories, although there are often outside invited researchers, 
including some from the U.S. and Europe. R & D budgets for the project 
come from the Japanese government as follows.  (Yen to dollar conversions 
have varied considerably, currently $1=140Yen.) 
        1982-4          21.6 Billion Yen
        1985             4.7
        1986             5.5
        1987             5.6
        1988             5.7
        1989             6.5
        1990              ?

Interested readers can be placed on the mailing list for the ICOT Journal 
by writing
        ICOT
        Mita, Kokusai Bldg 21F
        1-4-28, Mita, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108 Japan
        Tel: (03) 456-3195.

I have a few copies of Kurozumi's article that I can send by ordinary 
mail to requestors.  

-----------------END OF MEMO-------------------------------------------