June 1991 - Vol. 34 No. 6

June 1991 issue cover image

Features

Opinion

From Washington: CEOs unite to influence U.S. technology policy

Verbal sparring over U.S. technology policy has persisted unabated for over one decade and two presidential administrations. As politicians, academicians, and industry representatives continue to volley policy virtues, the nation has watched its strong lead in the world's technology tournament slip another few notches. Industry observers lament that setting priorities, particularly in terms of R&D spending, has reached a turning point.
Opinion

Legally speaking: First Amendment rights for information providers?

Applying the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to computerized communication of information is raising many interesting questions. While the general principle of this amendment can be simply stated—it forbids the government from interfering with freedom of speech—the specifies of its application over two centuries of American history have yielded a complex matrix of principles whose application depends on a variety of factors. Where computerized communication of information fits into this schema has yet to be definitely determined. The last “Legally Speaking” column (Mar. 1991) discussed some First Amendment issues raised by treating computerized information as private property, theft of which might be criminally prosecutable. This column will discuss quite a different First Amendment issue. But these two columns can only begin to introduce a few of the challenging First Amendment issues presented by the “Electronic Frontier.”
Opinion

The Soviet computer industry: a tale of two sectors

For the Soviet economy in general, and the Soviet computing community in particular, the last few years have been a period of unprecedented troubles and changes. The old, stable, centrally planned economic system has proven to be far more brittle than almost anyone expected; but attempts to build a market economy have fallen far short of many hopes and expectations. The net result to date is an economy in confusion and shambles (e.g., see [3, 6]).
Research and Advances

Project START

When the Japanese Fifth Generation Computer project was launched in the early 1980s, data-processing professionals along with the world press were quick to appreciate the strategic goals and background ideas of the project which has since been referred to as “Japan's challenge.” Soon, next generation computing projects and programs, like MCC in the U.S., ESPRIT in Europe and ALVEY in Great Britain emerged as a response to this challenge.
Research and Advances

Concurrency + modularity + programmability = MARS

Modern, and particularly upcoming, technology makes it possible to design concurrent computers with a wide variety of architectures. The spectrum of applications requiring high-performance computer systems is also constantly growing. One might expect these two factors to cause a significant portion of the computer market to turn away from the traditional general-purpose mainframes in favor of the more diversified specialized proprietary machines. However, economic factors, production problems and maintenance and portability of software steer computer architects toward further unification and standardization of the design principles and components, and toward minimizing the number of proprietary computers.
Research and Advances

Three new-generation software environments

As a result of the Soviet computer project START, a number of intelligent software environments have been developed. In the heart of these environments lies structural program synthesis—an automatic program synthesis technique developed in the Estonian Academy of Sciences and initially implemented on old mainframe computers [4]. This program synthesis technique can be considered as a particular method of logic programming—propositional logic programming [12].
Research and Advances

Intelligent software technology for the new decade

Our collective has been working in the Al domain for more than 15 years. During most of that period our research focused on two “classical” subjects: 1. natural language interfaces and 2. knowledge representation and processing. From the early 1980s, in addition to working on the conceptual aspects of Al, we have been increasingly involved in developing advanced technology of intelligent systems. Participating in the START project [1] stimulated our research and development [R&D] in this direction. Our task in the project was to design a more elaborate version of an industrial-type technology based on pilot software “factories.” These would allow a multiple—10-fold and more—increase in the efficiency
Research and Advances

Computing Curricula 1991

ACM first published recommendations for undergraduate programs in computer science in 1968 in a report called “Curriculum '68.” The report was produced as an activity of the ACM Education Board, which since then has been providing updates to recommendations for computer science programs as well as recommendations for other academic programs in computing.

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