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\F1\CAn Overview of The LISP Company's  Efforts




\J
There are several interrelated  projects that I am involved with, 
and several possible ways that I can imagine cooperation between
Perkin-Elmer and The LISP Company. To expedite discussions
I have prepared this summary for you. I hope it will clarify some
of the issues.


⊗ Artificial Intelligence: a growing market --two billion dollars by
 1990 says Business Week. The key is inexpensive, powerful machines that 
support LISP. 
Major corporations --Schlumberger, Standard Oil, TI, CDC,
IBM, and HP for example-- are investing heavily in AI. 
These are not simply research efforts; they are directed to 
the substantial development of commercial products.
These applications include intelligent CAD systems that understand design rules;
CAI systems that understand the topic under investigation; "expert systems"
that can operate at an expert level in specialized domains like
chemistry, genetics, medicine, and structural engineering; intelligent
control systems for robots; large-scale algebraic manipulation systems;
and natural language interfaces to complex data base applications for business
data processing.


⊗ A Softening of DEC's hold on ARPA and AI: 
Though DEC has had the ARPA/AI community to itself
--tying up the LISP market on the strength of DEC-10/20, that situation has changed
recently. The VAX is not viewed in the same way as the 10-20, and several
options are being discussed heatedly. Most of the long-term alternatives involve 
inexpensive,
powerful, personal machines -- I hope, something that P-E is exploring.
The current alternatives are: the "stretched 20", the VAX, Xerox's LISP machines,
or the commercial versions of the MIT LISP machine. All of these alternatives
are too expensive, short-term solutions,  and no clear consensus exists.
An announcement of a TLC-LISP effort for the P-E machines
would not go unnoticed.

⊗ The Navy contract to TLC: The Navy is gearing up a massive AI effort,
and in conjunction with this, wishes to develop TLC LISP on the new machines.
The Navy is expecting to purchase several thousand LISP machines per
year to aid in the training and education of Navy personnel.
One aspect of their 
program is  an application of Intelligent CAI that will 
 utilize several
thousand micro-based  machines  running LISP.
One segment --called the STEAMER Project-- of this
effort 
has recently purchased Z-80 systems solely
for the purpose of running TLC-LISP.  These systems are being utilized
to "off-load" parts of a LISP-based  simulation model of the
dynamics of a ship's steam boiler plant. The combined system is used
to train naval personnel in the care and maintenance of the steam plant.
Though parts of this work can be done effectively on Z-80 class machines,
the ultimate target of the
Navy work is, of course, a more powerful machine
and a more powerful TLC-LISP. 
Though the Navy's initial choice is the MC68000, I am preparing to make the
next TLC LISP implementation portable. As new architectures mature, I'm sure
the Navy will be anxious to exploit them for LISP.

⊗ My forthcoming LISP/AI course for industry: We will offer a LISP
class in the Western Institute in Computer Science, to be held this
year at Santa Clara University. This course will attract many of those
industry individuals  who will be involved in decisions to purchase
LISP equipment. This would be excellent exposure for a potential
supplier of machines for AI. 

⊗ My courses at Santa Clara University: I have designed
a series of courses in computing and its impact on the culture. These
range from strong technical views of AI, functional programming and
mathematical theory of computing at the graduate
level, to a  undergraduate computer "literacy"
course that discusses  the fundamental principles of computing,
its philosophy, and its future. This is not the typical "throw-away"
course that get  called "literacy", but a substantial discussion of computation.

The graduate courses started last year and will continue this year.
The first undergraduate course, dealing with LISP, LOGO,
and Smalltalk,  was offered this spring.
 The University is also
considering a proposal of mine to develop a faculty-level summer workshop
on computing and its impact on society and education. An integral
component of this series is an Interactive Programming Lab (IPL).
Out of this faculty experience is to come a University-wide undergraduate
course. This IPL presents a problem on the existing DEC-20 campus configuration:
that machine is too overloaded to perform "interactively". As a result
I used no machine in the graduate courses and used
personal machines in the spring course --Apples and TRS-80 ModIIs; I 
suspect that, with the proper graphics hardware, one can develop a  viable
interactive laboratory on the P-E  systems to handle all these courses.
As DEC has shown, students who practice on a particular manufacturer's
hardware can later have great influence on the purchase of equipment.

⊗ Education: Dr. Arthur
Luehrman suggests a billion-dollar equipment market and $50 million annually
in  sales of texts for
computer-related secondary education. Xerox's Smalltalk will be a strong
contender here --five manufacturers are implementing Smalltalk 80-- 
DEC, HP, and Apple are known to be in the group.
However,
LISP has clear and distinct advantages, both
in practice and theory. My ultimate target for the LISP
work is the high school mathematics and sciences curricula.
In the primary grades, one now sees a growing interest in LOGO --a graphics-oriented
LISP-based language, developed at MIT. In fact, a new company LOGO Computer
Systems Inc., has just formed to market LOGO for the Apple II as well
as distribute TI's new LOGO machine.

LOGO, as described in Seymour Papert's new book \F2Mindstorms: Computers,
Children, and Powerful Ideas\F1, has been an exceptional vehicle for teaching
primary-grade students "how to think".  LOGO is Smalltalk's immediate
parent; it was developed at MIT in the late 1960's; it introduced the 
idea of  the "turtle"; and it implemented the rudiments of object-oriented 
programming, both hallmarks of Smalltalk.
 LOGO offers a direct counter to the Smalltalk challenge;
However, it is limited in scope, addressing itself to the
educational domain rather than commercial quality applications.
We can do better with LISP.

Besides
being the parent of many of the LOGO/Smalltalk ideas, LISP offers
a degree of maturity and practicality not found in either Smalltalk or
LOGO. This breadth includes Artificial Intelligence applications
as well as educational benefits not obtainable with either competitor.

In summary, then, things are changing: 
I have seen a tremendous growth of awareness,
 and interest, in  AI-related  topics. For example,
four publishers have asked me to write  an introductory-level LISP text;
and this year a group of us presented a major session/demo/tutorial
on LISP and related areas at the West Coast Computer Faire.
These sessions drew about two-hundred people per day --people
who stayed for five hours to listen to what was to be a three-hour
presentation!

AI is coming of age; Smalltalk  
is about to become a commercial reality; pressure is building to revamp
traditional education -- all these factors suggest that a strong LISP effort
should do well.
AI/LISP is a dynamic, growing market whose potential is just
beginning to be realized commercially and educationally. 
 I think it is important to act
quickly and decisively to establish a position in this field; a quality
LISP on the P-E family is the starting point.

I hope this information adds some perspective to our conversation.
If you would like 
further information, please feel free to contact me.
\.