The top-down approach has advantage of programming and application experience in con-
current and symbolic, high-level languages. The bottom-up approach has the advantage of using 
imperative languages that evolved slowly, thus retaining market share. There is no clear answer 
to this question, but let me rephrase it in terms of two specific technologies: wormhole-routed 
distributed networks and concurrent constraint languages. I believe both required significant 
intellectual efforts to conceptualize, design, implement, and apply in real systems. The former 
represents a bottom-up technology and the latter a top-down technology. Bottom-up technolo-
gies are easier to introduce into designs, e.g., PIM/m incorporates wormhole routing (and can 
execute GDCC, a constraint language), whereas the Intel machines do not yet have implementa-
tions of constraint languages. Perhaps GDCC can be ported to general-purpose multiprocessors, 
but that is not the issue. Where GDCC came from, and where it is going, can only be deter-
mined from the foundation of the research expertise gained in its development. This is of course 
true about routing technologies, but again, bottom-up technologies are more easily imported 
(and more easily sold - they translate more directly to FLOPS). 

4 Conclusions 

I would like to finish this essay with a prescription for guaranteed success at generating the 
positive "social" results of the FGCS experience. Much discussion at the Evaluation Workshop 
concerned the issue of software - I think the distribution and availability of the great body 
of work is valuable, but not the main issue. The main issue to making the FGCS Project a 
"success" is to guarantee the high-level of computer science research initiated by ICOT. Shapiro 
suggested giving grants to foreign institutes for collaborative efforts. A better idea, in my view, 
would be to create a permanent Japanese Institute of Computer Science, which could accept 
international visitors, company trainees, and hire directly from the universities. There may be 
few proponents of this idea, primarily because of the game-theory effect that it appears to be 
in no individual's best interest, i.e., not the universities (who have their own institutes), the 
national labs, or the companies. However, taken in total, it would in fact benefit Japan because 
a truly first-rate Institute, with an international reputation, would produce all the beneficial 
effects of ICOT, without the pressure of producing advanced technology products in limited 
time periods. The Institute would allow a unique opportunity for fresh university graduates to 
tackle advanced problems in computer science with the support of industrial technologies. For 
example, next-generation CPU and network designs are best produced with combined resources, 
allowing the companies to develop their own current-generation designs. 

References 

[] P. Adamson and E. Tick. Greedy Partitioned Algorithms for the Shortest-Path Problem. 
    International Journal of Parallel Programming, 20(4), August 1991. 


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