The
Fifth Generation Computer Systems project (FGCS) was an initiative by Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry, begun in 1982, to create a "fifth generation computer" (see
History of computing hardware) which was supposed to perform much calculation using
massive parallel processing. It was to be the end result of a massive government/industry research project in Japan during the 1980s. It aimed to create an "epoch-making computer" with
supercomputer-like performance and to provide a platform for future developments in
artificial intelligence.
[1]
The term
fifth generation was intended to convey the system as being a leap beyond existing machines. Computers using
vacuum tubes were called the first generation;
transistors and
diodes, the second;
integrated circuits, the third; and those using
microprocessors, the fourth. Whereas previous computer generations had focused on increasing the number of logic elements in a single CPU, the fifth generation, it was widely believed at the time, would instead turn to massive numbers of CPUs for added performance.
[2] The project was to create the computer over a ten year period, after which it was considered ended and investment in a new, Sixth Generation project, began. Opinions about its outcome are divided: Either it was a failure, or it was ahead of its time.
So what do you think, a failure or it was ahead of its time?