May 02, 2007

Origins of the FGC/MP7 Multiprocessor. Download PDF

February 22, 2000

Fifth Generation Computer Corporation (FGC) has been granted a patent that simplifies the functions of parallel computing systems arranged in a binary tree structure.

FGC designs and builds computer Multiprocessor Servers (MP Servers) used primarily for speech recognition applications in the telephone industry.

FGC Director of Engineering James Maddox was issued the patent and assigned it to FGC. This is the third parallel processor patent assigned to the company.

While the system described in prior patents represented a substantial step forward in the art, a number of problems remained. The system required the use of special parallel programming languages and could not be programmed using standard commercially available languages. The system required specially trained programmers, who are not generally available, and the programs written could not be compiled using commercially available compilers. Additional significant limitations to such prior computer systems are that the processing elements spend a substantial portion of their time dealing with communications up and down the tree, which reduces the processing throughout the system; and that each processing element must be aware of its place in the tree, requiring software overhead. These difficulties have, until now, substantially limited the extent of application of binary tree computing systems.

These and other problems are overcome by the inclusion and placement of bus controllers, a delivery system which keeps each of the processors free to do heavy duty calculations.

For certain applications, binary tree architecture provides one of the most efficient methods to achieve results at low cost.

FGC President and CEO Thomas Jones said, “Doubling of computer performance every 18 months, Moore’s law, is coming to an end because silicon dioxide scaling is reaching its physical limits. In order to keep improving performance, parallel processing and multiprocessor architectures will receive increasing attention.”

New York-based Fifth Generation Computer Corporation has Systems Development Centers in River Edge, NJ and Melbourne, Florida.

The company was founded in New York in the 1980’s to design and develop special purpose parallel processors used in pattem matching applications. FGC’s designs are based on patents first assigned to Columbia University by the Defense Department  and now assigned to the company. In 1985, FGC entered into teaming agreements with AT&T to obtain a significant DARPA contract under the U.S. Defense Department’s Strategic Computer Program. The contract was to design and develop a Multiprocessor System based on FGC’s novel and innovative parallel processors. The contract was awarded to AT&T and FGC, as its major subcontractor, in 1986 and proved to be very successful in demonstrating a new approach to realtime continuous speech recognition.

Fifth Generation Computer Corporation (FGC) announced that its Speech Recognition Server System at US WEST has handled over 60 million requests from customers since it was installed in December 1998, at an accuracy rate of 90%, the highest in the industry for large vocabulary, telephone-based speech recognition.

FGC CEO Tom Jones made the announcement.

FGC designs and builds computer Multiprocessor Servers and Speech Recognition Servers for telephone companies for use in critical applications, such as Directory Assistance.

FGC’s main product is its high performance multiprocessor that processes speech recognition it receives over a network. Once a directory assistance call is received at a telephone company’s central office, an automatic greeting and a recorded “prompt” are played, such as, “For what city, please?” The caller then responds with the name of the city where his party lives. The response is then automatically recognized by FGC’s system and routed automatically to the proper operator team for the listing.

In order to meet US WEST’s rigorous requirements, FGC had to design, build and install a Speech Recognition Server capable of handling 1,000 simultaneous speech responses, with a vocabulary of approximately 5,000 locality and city names, over the commercial telephone network.

Over 700 operators in 5 geographic locations, spread over 5 western states, needed to be trained on the new system. To maintain and monitor the system, FGC designed a remote link, based on secure internet technology, to move updates and modifications from FGC’s New Jersey Systems Center to the US WEST location.

Fifth Generation Computer Corporation was founded in New York in the 1980’s to design and develop special purpose parallel processors used in pattern matching applications. FGC’s designs are based on patents first assigned to Columbia University by the Defense Department and now assigned solely to the Company. In 1985, FGC entered into teaming agreements with AT&T to obtain a significant DARPA contract under the U.S. Defense Department’s Strategic Computer Program to design and develop a Multiprocessor System based on FGC’s novel and innovative parallel processors. The contract was awarded to AT&T and FGC, as its major subcontractor, in 1986 and proved to be very successful in demonstrating a new approach to real-time continuous speech recognition.

FGC has designed and developed the FGC/MP-7 family of parallel processors based on both its unique patented designs and ongoing research and development efforts.

New York-based Fifth Generation Computer Corporation has Systems Development Centers in River Edge, NJ and Melbourne, Florida.