Most Prolog machines have been based on specialized architectures. Our goal is to start with a general purpose architecture and determine a minimal set of extensions for high performance Prolog execution. We have developed both the architecture and optimizing compiler simultaneously, drawing on results of previous implementations. We find that most Prolog specific operations can be done satisfactorily in software; however, there is a crucial set of features that the architecture must support to achieve the best Prolog performance. The emphasis of this paper is on our architecture and instruction set. The costs and benefits of the special architectural features and instructions are analyzed. Simulated performance results are presented and indicate a peak compiled Prolog performance of 3.68 million logical inferences per second.

article Free Access Share on Performance studies of a Prolog machine architecture Authors: T. P. Dobry Computer Science Division, University of California,Berkeley, Berkeley, California Computer Science Division, University of California,Berkeley, Berkeley, CaliforniaView Profile , A. M. Despain Computer Science Division, University of California,Berkeley, Berkeley, California Computer Science Division, University of California,Berkeley, Berkeley, CaliforniaView Profile , Y. N. Patt Computer Science Division, University of California,Berkeley, Berkeley, California Computer Science Division, University of California,Berkeley, Berkeley, CaliforniaView Profile Authors Info & Claims ACM SIGARCH Computer Architecture NewsVolume 13Issue 3June 1985 pp 180–190https://doi.org/10.1145/327070.327161Published:01 June 1985Publication History 60citation339DownloadsMetricsTotal Citations60Total Downloads339Last 12 Months35Last 6 weeks7 Get Citation AlertsNew Citation Alert added!This alert has been successfully added and will be sent to:You will be notified whenever a record that you have chosen has been cited.To manage your alert preferences, click on the button below.Manage my AlertsNew Citation Alert!Please log in to your account Save to BinderSave to BinderCreate a New BinderNameCancelCreateExport CitationPublisher SiteeReaderPDF