Q10.10: CD-ROMs?

PTF for AI by CMU

Carnegie Mellon University is establishing an Artificial Intelligence Repository to contain public domain and freely distributable software, publications, and other materials of interest to AI researchers, educators, and students. The AI Repository will be accessible by anonymous FTP and Andrew File System (AFS) without charge (See Q15.3). The contents of the repository will also be published by Prime Time Freeware as an inexpensive mixed-media (Book/CD-ROM) publication.

For your information, here is a precis of the CD-ROM:

PTF for AI is a periodic collection of AI-related source code and documentation. PTF for AI in no way modifies the legal restrictions on any package it includes. The first issue (1-1; Summer, 1993) consisted of an ISO-9660 CD-ROM bound into a ~100 page book. It contained ~600 MB of gzipped archives (2+ GB uncompressed and unpacked). Cost: $60 US.

For more information contact: Mark Kantrowitz, Archivist, CMU AI Repository, Editor, PTF for AI. Net: <mkant+repository@cs.cmu.edu>, Tel: +1 412-268-2582, Fax: +1 412-681-5739.

AI CD-ROM by NCC

Network Cybernetics Corporation has released a new CD-ROM title, the AI CD-ROM Revision 3 (ISBN 1-886376-01-8). This is the newest version of an annually updated collection of artificial intelligence programming and research tools. This ISO-9660 format CD-ROM contains thousands of programs, source code collections, tutorials, research papers, Internet journals, and other resources. Previous versions of the AI CD-ROM are currently in use as teaching aids for AI-related University courses, as research aids to computer scientists, and as a source of advanced computer programming tools for application program developers around the world.

The AI CD-ROM contains thousands of up to date files covering a wide range of topics including: Fuzzy Logic, Genetic Algorithms, Neural Networks, Expert Systems, Robotics, Machine Vision, Natural Language, Prolog, Lisp, Embedded AI, Virtual Reality, Cellular Automata, Chaos, Fractals, and more. The disc is divided into topical subdirectories and each directory contains an index file with descriptive listings of the contents. The AI CD-ROM has received good reviews in many magazines including Byte (Jerry Pournelle, March '93) and IEEE Computer (J. Zalewski, July '93), CD-ROM Professional and others. The CD-ROM has a list price of $89.00.

For people wanting to see a complete listing of the CD's contents, FTP to ftp://ftp.ncc.com:/ and get the file AICD3.ZIP. The file is also available from the Compuserve AIEXPERT forum, and the NCC dial-up BBS at 214-258-1832. Also check out the WWW site at: http://www.ncc.com/cdroms/ai/index.html

Enquiries to: Network Cybernetics Corporation, 4201 Wingren Road, Suite 202, Irving, TX 75062-2763, USA <ai-info@ncc.com>