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The muse approach to Or-parallel prolog

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Abstract

Muse (Multi-sequential Prolog engines) is a simple and efficient approach to Or-parallel execution of Prolog programs. It is based on having several sequential Prolog engines, each with its local address space, and some shared memory space. It is currently implemented on a 7-processors machine with local/shared memory constructed at SICS, a 16-processors Sequent Symmetry, a 96-processors BBN Butterfly I, and a 45-processors BBN Butterfly II. The sequential SICStus Prolog system has been adapted to Or-parallel implementation. Extra overhead associated with this adaptation is very low in comparison with the other approaches. The speed-up factor is very close to the number of processors in the system for a large class of problems.

The goal of this paper is to present the Muse execution model, some of its implementation issues, a variant of Prolog suitable for multiprocessor implementations, and some experimental results obtained from two different multiprocessor systems.

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  1. Swedish Institute of Computer Science, SICS, Box 1263, S-164 28, Kista, Sweden

    Khayri A. M. Ali & Roland Karlsson

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  1. Khayri A. M. Ali
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  2. Roland Karlsson
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Ali, K.A.M., Karlsson, R. The muse approach to Or-parallel prolog. Int J Parallel Prog 19, 129–162 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01407834

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