THESIS: the hardware environment for small intelligent systems, for engineering applications

System size, lack of standards and poor real time response have prevented the widespread acceptance of AI techniques in engineering applications. By tailoring the hardware configuration specifically for applications and by utilising an accepted bus standard, improved performance may be achieved. In this paper, the above approach is justified through the explanation of the principles of a hardware system, named The Hardware Environment for Small Intelligent Systems (THESIS) which is currently under development in Edinburgh University.