Xerox 1100 and Interlisp-D in 1983 Mini-Micro Systems article

[Paolo Amoroso]

Bitsavers has just posted several dozen scans of Mini-Micro Systems magazine from the late 1970s to the late 1980s. On page 207 of the PDF of the September 1983 issue is the article Computers simulate human experts by Steven Roberts. The article reports on the Lisp products and AI systems showcased at AAAI 1982 with a focus on expert systems and how they work. It also briefly mentions the then newly introduced Dolphin and includes a couple of illustrations of the workstation and the Interlisp-D environment.

I'll check the other issue for more Interlisp or Xerox material.

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Paolo Amoroso | Blog | Mastodon

[Paolo Amoroso]

I'm going through past issues of Mini-Micro Systems magazine and there are more mentions of Medley and Xerox than I expected, including a few ones I didn't know about such as the collaboration with Lucid. Interestingly, the magazine never uses the word "Interlisp" and just refers to it as Lisp.

March 1986: Xerox proves it moves ideas into the market. Why Xerox was better positioned than other vendors for delivering low-cost AI solutions and how it was improving at bringing its innovations to the market:

Brian Boyle, president of Novon Research in San Francisco, says that Xerox used to practically give their technology away by putting it into the public domain, but he now contends that the company appears to be redirecting its thinking, citing the company's OEM strategy with the 1185 and 1186 as an example.

EXPERT SYSTEMS BLAZE TRAILS TO Al SUCCESS. An overview of the expert system market and Xerox's offerings. Was the screenshot of ART on page 72 of the PDF taken on Interlisp-D?

August 1986: Al SHAPES UP FOR MAINSTREAM USE. A report on the AI market with mentions of Xerox workstations.

September 1986: LUCID LOCKS ON TO THE '386, IBM and XEROX:

Moreover, Lucid and Xerox Corp.'s Artificial Intelligence Systems revealed an on-going contract whereby Lucid will provide consulting services to Xerox during the development of Xerox's own Common LISP.

October 1986: SOFTWARE INTEGRATES Al, STANDARD SYSTEMS. Mentions KEE and includes a screenshot of the system on Interlisp-D.

August 1987. HARDWARE DYNAMOS POWER Al DEPLOYMENT. Reports on the latest developments in Lisp hardware and solutions by various vendors, including Xerox.

[Paolo Amoroso]

I finished reviewing the issues of Mini-Micro Systems magazine and found only one other, incidental mention of Interlisp-D in the October 1983 issue: Two firms aim LISP Al systems at commercial market (the companies are LMI and Symbolics). Although it doesn't mention Interlisp or Xerox, this article in the May 1984 issue is also interesting: Artificial intelligence faces a crossroads: Developers of expert systems must choose between LISP and Prolog.