Abstract
This Chapter discusses the evolution of the Warren Abstract Machine described in Chapter 2 toward a physical machine, the Prolog Machine, PLM, described in Chapter 4. Given the instruction set of the WAM and the data types on which it processes, specific representations for both code and data are first described. Then new instructions and enhancements of old instructions are proposed. As part of this discussion the issue of built-in predicates in Prolog is identified as one of the major missing elements in the WAM specification and is addressed as a prominent feature of the PLM. Finally, some of the issues of compiling Prolog to run on the PLM are discussed.
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© 1990 Kluwer Academic Publishers
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Dobry, T.P. (1990). A Modified WAM. In: A High Performance Architecture for Prolog. The Kluwer International Series in Engineering and Computer Science, vol 90. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-1529-2_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-1529-2_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-8820-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4613-1529-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive