An architecture for real-time inference engines on personal computers

Design and implementation possibilities for real-time inference engines on personal computers and PC-based workstations are studied. FLEXIE, a PC-based real-time inference engine, and an integral part of FLEX, a prototype real-time expert system shell for personal computers is described. A fast pattern-matcher, based on an extension of the RETE algorithm, is built into FLEXIE in order to make it possible to include external real-time information into the inference process. The design of the pattern-matching algorithm makes it suitable for hardware implementation. It can made the pattern-matching process run considerably faster, a key issue for real-time inference. An architecture for such a hardware pattern-matcher is proposed, and initial simulation results are presented. They show an overall speed-up of more than an order of magnitude.