The Ministry of International Trade and Industry has given the go-ahead for the intended culmination of the ICOT Institute for Computers of Tomorrow – building the fifth generation computer: MITI will be putting up about $240m between 1989 and 1992 for the project and the Institute will develop the prototype machine; the aim is a parallel processor with 1,000 processing nodes that will outperform today’s top-end scalar mainframes 500-fold, and capable of interpreting human speech, to be completed in prototype form within three years; and in order to win international participation, MITI will provide free access to all copyrights and patents taken out on the machine to Japanese and foreign companies.
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