The IXM2 parallel associative processor for AI

Describes the IXM2 associative processor and its main application in speech-to-speech translation. The IXM2 is a semantic memory system machine that began as a faithful implementation of the NETL semantic network machine and grew into a massively parallel SIMD machine that has demonstrated the power of large associative memories. Such processors can support robust performance in speech applications. In fact, the IXM2 with 73 transputers has outperformed a Cray in some language-translation tasks. We selected speech-to-speech translation as our main application because it is one of the grand challenges of massively parallel artificial intelligence. The social implications of successful automatic translation are enormous-e.g. people who speak different languages could communicate in real time by using interpreting telephony.<>