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SYMBOL: a major departure from classic software dominated von Neumann computing systems

Authors:

Rex Rice,

William R. SmithAuthors Info & Claims

AFIPS '71 (Spring): Proceedings of the May 18-20, 1971, spring joint computer conference

Pages 575 - 587

https://doi.org/10.1145/1478786.1478867

Published: 18 May 1971 Publication History

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Abstract

The prime goal of the SYMBOL research project was to demonstrate, with a full-scale working system, that a very high-level, general-purpose, procedural, "state of the art" language and a large portion of a time-sharing operating system could be implemented directly in hardware and achieve a significant increase in overall computational rates. A further objective was to create hardware design and construction techniques which could be easily applied by a small number of people to implement such a system in a reasonable time and at a relatively low cost. Although this was a research project, there was a high dedication to developing automation, hardware, test equipment and documentation to support the project. The name SYMBOL was chosen to signify direct hardware symbolic addressing.

References

[1]

G D Chesley W R Smith The hardware-implemented high-level machine language for SYMBOL This volume

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[2]

J R Tennant G D Chesley Design and layout of large integrated circuit boards Second Annual Seminar on Integrated Circuits January 1965

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[3]

A P Mullery R F Schauer R Rice ADAM-A problem-oriented SYMBOL processor Proc SJCC Vol 23 1963 pp 367--380

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[4]

W R Smith et al SYMBOL: A large experimental system exploring major hardware replacement of software This volume

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[5]

B E Cowart R Rice S F Lundstrom The physical attributes and testing aspects of the SYMBOL system This volume

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[6]

W R Smith System design based on LSI constraints: A case history Digest of 1968 Computer Group Conference June 25-27 1968 International Hotel Los Angeles California IEEE 345 East 47th Street New York New York

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R Rice Impact of arrays on digital systems IEEE Journ of Solid-State Circuits Vol SC-2 No 4 December 1967 An expanded set of references to cover work on the SYMBOL can be found in References 1, 4, and 5.

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Cited By

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Giloi WGiloi W(1993)Typenkennung, Datenstruktur-Architekturen, Sprach-ArchitekturenRechnerarchitektur10.1007/978-3-642-58054-3_8(243-290)Online publication date: 1993
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-58054-3_8
Browne JSmith T(1984)An object-oriented, capability-based architectureVLSI Engineering10.1007/BFb0043446(21-38)Online publication date: 1984
https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0043446
Abo El Naga NField J(1982)A Hardware Algol MachineIEEE Micro10.1109/MM.1982.2910202:4(37-47)Online publication date: 1-Oct-1982
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/MM.1982.291020
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Published In

AFIPS '71 (Spring): Proceedings of the May 18-20, 1971, spring joint computer conference

May 1971

651 pages

ISBN:9781450379076

DOI:10.1145/1478786

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 18 May 1971

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Cited By

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Giloi WGiloi W(1993)Typenkennung, Datenstruktur-Architekturen, Sprach-ArchitekturenRechnerarchitektur10.1007/978-3-642-58054-3_8(243-290)Online publication date: 1993
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-58054-3_8
Browne JSmith T(1984)An object-oriented, capability-based architectureVLSI Engineering10.1007/BFb0043446(21-38)Online publication date: 1984
https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0043446
Abo El Naga NField J(1982)A Hardware Algol MachineIEEE Micro10.1109/MM.1982.2910202:4(37-47)Online publication date: 1-Oct-1982
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/MM.1982.291020
Mooney J(1981)The VALI (Variable Language Interpreter)Proceedings of the May 4-7, 1981, national computer conference10.1145/1500412.1500432(145-148)Online publication date: 4-May-1981
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1500412.1500432
Soltis F(1981)Tutorial Series 12 Design of a Small Business Data Processing SystemComputer10.1109/C-M.1981.22061014:9(77-93)Online publication date: 1-Sep-1981
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/C-M.1981.220610
Ditzel D(1981)Reflections on the High-Level Language Symbol Computer SystemComputer10.1109/C-M.1981.22053014:7(55-66)Online publication date: 1-Jul-1981
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/C-M.1981.220530
Rice R(1981)The Chief Architect's Reflections on Symbol IIRComputer10.1109/C-M.1981.22052914:7(49-54)Online publication date: 1-Jul-1981
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/C-M.1981.220529
Golovkin B(1981)Methods and means of parallel processing of informationJournal of Soviet Mathematics10.1007/BF0108518817:3(1876-1939)Online publication date: 1981
https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01085188
(1980)Special Feature Program Measurements on a High-Level Language ComputerComputer10.1109/MC.1980.165375213:8(62-72)Online publication date: 1-Aug-1980
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/MC.1980.1653752
Flynn M(1980)Directions and Issues in Architecture and LanguageComputer10.1109/MC.1980.165337013:10(5-22)Online publication date: 1-Oct-1980
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/MC.1980.1653370
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