Implementation techniques for Prolog

This paper is a short survey about currently used implementation techniques for Prolog. It gives an introduction to uniication and resolution in Prolog and presents the memory model and a basic execution model. These models are expanded to the Vienna Abstract Machine (VAM) with its two versions, the VAM 2P and the VAM 1P , and the most famous abstract machine, the Warren Abstract Machine (WAM). The continuation passing style model of Prolog, binary Prolog, leads to the BinWAM. Abstract interpretation can be applied to gather information about a program. This information is used in the generation of very specialized machine code and in optimizations like clause indexing and instruction scheduling on each kind of abstract machine.

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