ESP — Extended Self-contained PROLOG — as a preliminary Kernel Language of fifth generation computers

In the first three-year development stage of the fifth generation computer systems project, a series of high-performance personal computers called sequential inference machines are being developed at ICOT Research Center. The machines have a high-level machine language called KL0, which is a PROLOG-based logic language with various extensions. In the software development of the sequential inference machines. ESP, a software-supported yet higher level language compiled into KL0, is used instead of directly using KL0. This paper describes the design of the language system in sequential inference machines. This description will center on ESP with an overview of KL0.