Evaluation of the FACOM ALPHA Lisp machine

The FACOM ALPHA is the first and only commercially dedicated processor for Lisp and Prolog manufactured in Japan. This paper discusses the evaluation of the FACOM ALPHA for Lisp execution when compared with a general-purpose computer. The CPU use rate of machine instructions and the utilization ratio of the hardware resources are discussed. This paper also explains the interaction between the garbage collector and the virtual memory system, which improves system response time.