Subject: FAQ: Expert System Shells 1/1 [Monthly posting] Newsgroups: comp.ai,comp.ai.shells,news.answers,comp.answers From: mkant+@cs.cmu.edu (Mark Kantrowitz) Date: Fri, 13 May 1994 14:55:01 GMT Archive-name: ai-faq/expert/part1 Last-Modified: Thu May 12 22:56:19 1994 by Mark Kantrowitz Version: 1.19 ;;; **************************************************************** ;;; Expert System Shells ******************************************* ;;; **************************************************************** ;;; Written by Mark Kantrowitz ;;; expert_1.faq -- 49953 bytes This post contains the Expert System Shells FAQ. If you think of questions that are appropriate for this FAQ, or would like to improve an answer, please send email to us at mkant+ai-faq@cs.cmu.edu. CONTRIBUTIONS to this summary should be sent to mkant+ai-faq@cs.cmu.edu. Companies wishing to expand their entries should send product summaries no longer than the RTworks or CLIPs entries, and should focus on features and facts. Hype and vague generalizations will be removed. *** Copyright: Copyright (c) 1992-94 by Mark Kantrowitz. All rights reserved. This FAQ may be freely redistributed in its entirety without modification provided that this copyright notice is not removed. It may not be sold for profit or incorporated in commercial documents (e.g., published for sale on CD-ROM, floppy disks, books, magazines, or other print form) without the prior written permission of the copyright holder. Permission is expressly granted for this document to be made available for file transfer from installations offering unrestricted anonymous file transfer on the Internet. This article is provided AS IS without any express or implied warranty. *** Topics Covered: [1-1] Introduction [1-2] Other Sources of Information [1-3] Bibliography of Expert Systems books, introductions, documentation, periodicals, and conference proceedings. [1-4] Note about 'Real-Time' expert systems [1-5] Free/Cheap Expert System Shells [1-6] Commercial Expert System Shells [1-A] Acknowledgements Search for [#] to get to question number # quickly. *** Recent changes: ;;; 1.18: ;;; 14-MAR-94 mk Updated DYNACLIPS entry in part 6 to reflect version 2. ;;; 18-MAR-94 mk Renamed part 6 of the AI FAQ to become this FAQ. Moved ;;; parts of the AI FAQ that were appropriate for this FAQ ;;; from the AI FAQ to this FAQ. ;;; 22-MAR-94 mk Added email addresses for Gensym. ;;; ;;; 1.19: ;;; 15-APR-94 mk Added entry on WindExS to [1-5]. ;;; 20-APR-94 mk Added OPS83 entry and updated RAL entry. ;;; 22-APR-94 mk Updated ftp information for ftp.gmd.de. ;;; 22-APR-94 mk Dynaclips v3 now available. ;;; 12-MAY-94 mk Added entry on RT-Expert to [1-5]. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: [1-1] Introduction Certain questions and topics come up frequently in the various network discussion groups devoted to and related to Expert Systems. This file/article is an attempt to gather these questions and their answers into a convenient reference for AI researchers, students, and practitioners. It is posted on a monthly basis. The hope is that this will cut down on the user time and network bandwidth used to post, read and respond to the same questions over and over, as well as providing education by answering questions some readers may not even have thought to ask. Currently this FAQ is a primarily a list of free and commercial expert system shells, but other questions and answers will be added as they arise. The latest version of this file is available by anonymous FTP from ftp.cs.cmu.edu:/user/ai/pubs/faqs/ai/expert_1.faq [128.2.206.173] using username "anonymous" and password "name@host" (substitute your email address) or via AFS in the Andrew File System directory /afs/cs.cmu.edu/project/ai-repository/ai/pubs/faqs/ai/expert_1.faq You can also obtain a copy of the FAQ by sending a message to ai+query@cs.cmu.edu with Send ESS FAQ in the message body. The FAQ postings are also archived in the periodic posting archive on rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/news.answers/ai-faq/expert/ [18.70.0.209] If you do not have anonymous ftp access, you can access the archive by mail server as well. Send an E-mail message to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with "help" and "index" in the body on separate lines for more information. An automatically generated HTML version of this FAQ is accessible by WWW as part of the AI-related FAQs Mosaic page. The URL for this resource is http://www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/Web/Groups/AI/html/faqs/top.html The direct URL for the Expert Systems FAQ is http://www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/Web/Groups/AI/html/faqs/ai/expert/top.html If you need to cite the FAQ for some reason, use the following format: Mark Kantrowitz, "Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Expert System Shells", comp.ai.shells, , , ftp.cs.cmu.edu:/user/ai/pubs/faqs/ai/expert_?.faq, mkant+ai-faq@cs.cmu.edu. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: [1-2] Other Sources of Information In addition to the free expert system shells listed below, the Prolog Resource Guide lists a variety of Prolog implementations and products. In addition to being backward-chaining systems, many prolog implementations provide support for forward-chaining rules and other expert systems requirements. For example, Amziod sells Dennis Merritt's book, "Building Expert Systems in Prolog", Springer-Verlag, 1989, for $47 (with disk containing source code for $82). The July/August 1992 issue of PC AI magazine includes their annual product guide for expert systems and related tools. The December 1992 issue of AI Expert Magazine, pages 42-49, contains an Expert System Resource Guide. The February 1991 issue of IEEE Computer has an article about Expert System Tools. Another article of possible interest is "Selection Criteria for Expert System Shells: A Socio-Technical Framework", by Anthony C. Stylianou, Gregory R. Madey, and Robert D. Smith, CACM 35(10):30-48, October 1992. The AI FAQ contains pointers to other resources that may be of interest to readers of this FAQ. If you can't find the information you're looking for here, try looking in the AI FAQ. The AI FAQ is posted monthly to the newsgroup comp.ai and is also available from the anonymous ftp locations mentioned above. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: [1-3] Bibliography of Expert Systems books, introductions, documentation, periodicals, and conference proceedings. This section contains a list of key references and introductions about Production Systems, Expert Systems, and Match Algorithms. For other AI-related books, see part 4 of the AI FAQ. Overviews: Bruce G. Buchanan and Edward H. Shortliffe, "Rule-Based Expert Systems: The MYCIN Experiments of the Stanford Heuristic Programming Project", Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1985. The Davis and King paper (chapter 4, "An overview of production systems") provides a good overview. Frederick Hayes-Roth, "The knowledge based expert system: A tutorial", IEEE Computer 17(9):11-28, 1984. Bruce G. Buchanan and R.O. Duda, "Principles of Rule-Based Systems", Tech Report HPP-82-14, 1982. (Discusses the design of expert systems, including representation, inference, and uncertainty management. Examples from numerous specific systems, and discusses which problems are suitable for attack by rule-based systems.) Joseph Giarratano and Gary Riley, "Expert Systems Principles and Practice", PWS Publishing (20 Park Plaza, Boston, MA 02116-4324 1-800-842-3636), 1993, 644 pages, ISBN 0-534-93744-6, $53.94. [This is the second edition of "Expert Systems: Principles and Programming" and comes with an MS-DOS CLIPS 6.0 interpreter.] General AI books with extensive coverage of expert systems: Firebaugh, Morris W., "Artificial Intelligence: A Knowledge-Based Approach", PWS-Kent, Massachusetts, 1989. ISBN 0-87835-325-9 OPS5: Charles L. Forgy, "OPS5 User's Manual", Technical Report CMU-CS-81-135, Carnegie Mellon University, School of Computer Science, Pittsburgh, PA 1981. Thomad Cooper and Nancy Wogrin, "Rule-based Programming with OPS5", Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 1988, ISBN 0-934613-51-6, $49.95. Match Algorithms: RETE: Charles L. Forgy, "RETE: A fast algorithm for the many pattern/many object pattern match problem", Artificial Intelligence 19(1):17-37, September 1982. TREAT: Daniel P. Miranker, "TREAT: A better match algorithm for AI production systems". In Proceedings of the Sixth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-87), pages 42-47, August 1987. Daniel P. Miranker, "TREAT: A New and Efficient Match Algorithm for AI Production Systems", Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 1990, 143 pages, ISBN 0-934613-71-0, $29.95. MatchBox: Mark Perlin, "The match box algorithm for parallel production system match", Technical Report CMU-CS-89-163, Carnegie Mellon University, School of Computer Science, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, May 1989. DRETE: Michael A. Kelly and Rudolph E. Seviora, "An evaluation of DRETE on CUPID for OPS5 matching", in Proceedings of the Eleventh International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-89), pages 84-90, Detroit MI, August 1989, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers. Journals -- Expert Systems: EXPERT SYSTEMS WITH APPLICATIONS Published 4 times annually. ISSN 0957-4174. Subscriptions: Institutions L85 ($155), Individuals L45 ($72). Pergamon Press Inc., 660 White Plains Road, Tarrytown, NY 10591-5153, email PPI@pergamon.com, or Pergamon Press Ltd., Headington Hill Hall, Oxford OX3 0BW, England. EXPERT SYSTEMS: THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF KNOWLEDGE ENGINEERING Published 4 times annually. ISSN 0266-4720. Subscriptions: L85 ($110) Learned Information Ltd., Woodside, Hinksey Hill, Oxford OX1 5AU, UK. Tel: +44 (0)865-730275 Fax: +44 (0)085-736354 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EXPERT SYSTEMS Published 4 times annually. ISSN 0894-9077. Subscriptions: Institutions $135; Individuals $75. Outside the US add $10 for surface mail and $20 for airmail. JAI Press Inc., 55 Old Post Road -- No. 2, PO Box 1678, Greenwich, CT 06836-1678. KNOWLEDGE ENGINEERING REVIEW Published quarterly, ISSN 0269-8889. In the UK: Cambridge University Press, The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 1BR, UK. In N. America: Cambridge University Press, Journals Department, 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: [1-4] Note about 'Real-Time' expert systems Many "real-time" expert systems are 'soft' real-time systems, in that they claim to be fast. A 'hard' real-time system would have features that guarantee a response within a fixed amount of real-time (e.g., bounded computation, not just a fast match-recognize-act cycle). Systems like G2 use event-driven processing (restricting certain rules to execute only when specific WM elements change in a particular way) as a method of limiting forward chaining. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: [1-5] Free/Cheap Expert System Shells Remember, when ftping compressed or compacted files (.Z, .gz, .arc, .fit, etc.) to use binary mode for retrieving the files. Files that end with a .gz suffix were compressed with the patent-free gzip (no relation to zip). Source for gzip is available from: prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/{gzip-1.2.3.shar,gzip-1.2.3.tar,gzip-1.2.3.msdos.exe} If you do not have ftp access, you can FTP files by E-mail. Send a message with the word "help" in the body to ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com. FOCL -- ics.uci.edu:pub/machine-learning-programs/ Files: README and KR-FOCL-ES.cpt.hqx Contact: pazzani@ics.uci.edu Expert System Shell and Machine Learning Program; A backward chaining rule interpreter with a graphical interface for the MAC. SOAR -- ftp.cs.cmu.edu: /afs/cs.cmu.edu/project/soar/public/Soar5/ -- Lisp Version /afs/cs.cmu.edu/project/soar/public/Soar6/ -- C Version Contact: soar-request@cs.cmu.edu Integrated Agent Architecture. Supports learning through chunking. OPS5 -- ftp.cs.cmu.edu:/user/ai/areas/expert/ops5/ops5.tar.gz BABYLON-- ftp.gmd.de:/gmd/ai-research/Software/ [129.26.8.84] (BinHexed stuffit archive of Babylon) Development environment for expert systems. MOBAL is a system for developing operational models of application domains. It integrates a manual knowledge acquisition and inspection environment, an inference engine, machine learning methods for automated knowledge acquisition, and a knowledge revision tool. By using MOBAL's knowledge acquisition environment, you can incrementally develop a model of your domain in terms of logical facts and rules. You can inspect the knowledge you have entered in text or graphics windows, augment the knowledge, or change it at any time. The built-in inference engine can immediately execute the rules you have entered to show you the consequences of your inputs, or answer queries about the current knowledge. MOBAL also builds a dynamic sort taxonomy from your inputs. If you wish, you can use machine learning methods to automatically discover additional rules based on the facts that you have entered, or to form new concepts. If there are contradictions in the knowledge base due to incorrect rules or facts, there is a knowledge revision tool to help you locate the problem and fix it. MOBAL (release 2.2) is available free for non-commercial academic use by anonymous ftp from ftp.gmd.de:gmd/mlt/Mobal/. The system requires a Sun SparcStation, SunOS 4.1, OpenWindows 2.0, and HyperNeWS 1.4; the latter can be obtained by sending mail to newsdev@turing.ac.uk. By agreement with Turing Institute, HyperNeWS 1.4 is now also available from our server in the directory gmd/mlt/HyperNeWS/. CLIPS 6.0 (C Language Integrated Production System) is an OPS-like forward chaining production system written in ANSI C by NASA. The CLIPS inference engine includes truth maintenance, dynamic rule addition, and customizable conflict resolution strategies. CLIPS, including the runtime version, is easily embeddable in other applications. CLIPS includes an object-oriented language called COOL (CLIPS Object-Oriented Language) which is directly integrated with the inference engine. CLIPS runs on many platforms including IBM PC compatibles (including Windows 3.1 and MS-DOS 386 versions), Macintosh, VAX 11/780, Sun 3/260, and HP9000/500. CLIPS is available from COSMIC at a nominal fee for unlimited copies with no royalties. (CLIPS is available free to NASA, USAF, and their contractors for use on NASA and USAF projects.) For more information, email service@cossack.cosmic.uga.edu, write COSMIC, University of Georgia, 382 East Broad Street, Athens, GA 30602, call 706-542-3265, or fax 706-542-4807. To subscribe to the CLIPS mailing list, send a message to the list server listserv@cossack.cosmic.uga.edu (128.192.14.4) with message body SUBSCRIBE CLIPS-LIST. The CLIPS help desk phone number is 713-286-8919 (fax 713-286-4479) and email address is stbprod@fdr.jsc.nasa.gov. (The address is STB Products Help Desk, LinCom Corporation, 1020 Bay Area Boulevard, #200, Houston, TX 77058-2628.) [Note: Folks who obtain CLIPS from COSMIC can do anything they wish with it, including redistribute it. Folks who obtain CLIPS directly from NASA are restricted to using it for US government purposes only.] The CLIPS FAQ list and bug fixes are available from hubble.jsc.nasa.gov in the directory /pub/clips and are maintained by Gary Riley . Joseph Giarratano and Gary Riley's book, "Expert Systems Principles and Practice", comes with an MS-DOS CLIPS 6.0 interpreter (see [1-3] above). DYNACLIPS (DYNAamic CLIPS Utilities), is a set of blackboard, dynamic knowledge exchange, and agent tools for CLIPS 5.1 and 6.0. It is implemented as a set of libraries that can be linked with CLIPS 5.1 or CLIPS 6.0. Version 1 should be used with CLIPS 5.1 and version 2 with CLIPS 6.0. Version 3.0 will work with either CLIPS 5.1 or CLIPS 6.0. Source code is not available. Agents use the blackboard to communicate with other intelligent agents in the framework. Each intelligent agent can send and receive facts, rules, and commands. Rules and facts are inserted and deleted dynamicly while the agents are running. Knowledge can be transfered on a temporary or permanent basis. For more information, please contact Yilmaz Cengeloglu, PO Box 10412, Daytona Beach, FL 32120-0412, or send email to cengelog@dab.ge.com or 73313.775@compuserve.com. It is available from the CMU AI Repository in ftp.cs.cmu.edu:/user/ai/areas/expert/clips/dyna/ MIKE (Micro Interpreter for Knowledge Engineering) is a full-featured, free, and portable software environment designed for teaching purposes at the UK's Open University. It includes forward and backward chaining rules with user-definable conflict resolution strategies, and a frame representation language with inheritance and 'demons' (code triggered by frame access or change), plus user-settable inheritance strategies. Automatic 'how' explanations (proof histories) are provided for rule exectuion, as are user-specified 'why' explanations. Coarse-grained and fine-grained rule tracing facilities are provided, along with a novel 'rule graph' display which concisely shows the history of rule execution. MIKE, which forms the kernel of an Open University course on Knowledge Engineering, is written in a conservative and portable subset of Edinburgh-syntax Prolog, and is distributed as non-copy-protected source code. MIKE version 1 was described in the October/November 1990 issue of BYTE. MIKE v1.50, which was formerly available from a range of ftp servers, has been superseded by two newer versions: MIKEv2.03, a full Prolog source code version, incorporating a RETE algorithm for fast forward chaining, a truth maintenance system, uncertainty handling, and hypothetical worlds, and MIKEv2.50, a turnkey DOS version with menu-driven interface and frame- and rule-browsing tools, fully compatible with MIKEv2.03, but without source code. They are available by anonymous ftp from hcrl.open.ac.uk [137.108.81.16] as the files MIKEv2.03: /pub/software/src/MIKEv2.03/* MIKEv2.50: /pub/software/pc/MIKEV25.ZIP They are also available from the CMU AI Repository. For further information, please contact Marc Eisenstadt, M.Eisenstadt@open.ac.uk, Human Cognition Research Lab, The Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK, phone +44 908-65-3149, fax +44 908-65-3169. ES: The October/November 1990 issue of BYTE also described the ES expert system. ES supports backward/forward chaining, fuzzy set relations, and explanation, and is a standalone executable for IBM-PCs. ES is available by anonymous ftp from ftp.uu.net:/pub/ai/expert-sys/ [192.48.96.9] as summers.tar.Z. ftp.uu.net is mirrored on unix.hensa.ac.uk [129.12.21.7] under /pub/uunet/. GEST (Generic Expert System Tool) Version 4.0 is a flexible expert system shell applicable to a variety of problem domains. Its knowledge representation schemes include facts, frames, rules, and procedures. It supports forward and backward inferencing with multiple options for each and message handling for frame objects. There is a time system to support an event history and reverting back to a previous state. In addition, there is support for fuzzy logic and certainty factor maintenance. Features new to V4.0 include a blackboard architecture (single level and hierarchical) with a control module and knowledge sources. The user interface utilizes the Symbolics windowing system and is menu and mouse driven. GEST can be embedded in a user program (with or without the GEST user interface) by using a library of function calls. The printed reference manual includes a tutorial, table of contents, and thorough index. GEST runs only on Symbolics Lisp Machines, Genera 7.2. GEST users are expected to be familiar with Symbolics machines. Source and object files are available by anonymous ftp to ftp.gatech.edu in the (binary) file pub/ai/gest.tar.Z. Register your copy with John Gilmore, Georgia Tech Research Institute, ITL/CSITD 0800, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA, Internet: john.gilmore@gtri.gatech.edu. Send your name, address, organization, phone number, and Internet email address. To request a free printed copy of the GEST manual (not in the distribution file), please also contact John Gilmore. Users are free to produce as many copies of the GEST Reference Manual as they require without any restrictions. WindExS (Windows Expert System) is a fully functional Windows-based forward chaining expert system. Its modular architecture allows the user to substitute new modules as required to enhance the capabilites of the system. WindExS sports Natural Language Rule Processor, Inference Engine, File Manager, User Interface, Message Manager and Knowledge Base modules. It supports forward chaining, and graphical knowledge base representation. Write etoupin@aol.com for documentation and operational system. RT-Expert is a shareware expert system that lets C programmers integrate expert systems rules into their C or C++ applications. RT-Expert consists of a rule-compiler that compiles rules into C code, and a library containing the rule execution engine. RT-Expert for DOS works with Borland Turbo C, Borland C++, and Microsoft C/C++ compilers. The personal edition is licensed for educational, research, and hobby use. Applications created with RT-Expert personal edition are not licensed for commercial purposes. Professional editions are available for commercial applications using DOS, Windows, and Unix environments. RT-Expert is available by anonymous ftp from world.std.com:/vendors/rtis/rtexpert For more information, write to Real-Time Intelligent Systems Corporation . ---------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: [1-6] Commercial Expert System Shells The commercial products below are listed in alphabetical order. 1ST-CLASS, 1ST-CLASS FUSION, and 1ST-CLASS HT run on personal computers. For more information, write to 1st-Class Expert Systems, Inc., 526 Boston Post Road, Suite 150, Wayland, MA 01778 or call 800-872-8812 (508-358-7722). See PC Tech Journal 7(4):111, April, 1989 and PC Week 6(20):23, May 22, 1989. ACTIVATION FRAMEWORK runs on personal computers and costs $5000. This tool is not a tradition expert system shell, rather is a tool for building real-time data interpretation applications. The vendor claims the tool competes with Gensym's G2 in terms of application domains. However, G2 is not a tool for end users, but rather for C and/or Ada software developers. For more information, write to The Real-Time Intelligent Systems Corporation, 26 Worthen Street, Chelmsford, MA 01824, or call 508-250-4633. Aion Development System (ADS) runs on numerous platforms, including DOS, OS/2, SunOS, Microsoft Windows, and VMS. It includes an object oriented knowledge representation, forward, backward, bidirectional, and pattern matching rules, graphics, calls to/from other languages (C, Pascal, ...), and the Choreographer graphical user interface. For more information, write to Aion Corporation, 101 University Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94301, call 800-845-2466 (415-328-9595), or fax 415-321-7728. For Europe, write to Software Generation, Kontichsesteenweg 40, B 2630 Aartselaar, Belgium, call 32-(0)3-877.12.93, or fax 32-(0)3-877.13.55 ART-IM and CBR Express run on personal computers (ART-IM $8,000, CBR Express $10,000), workstations (CBR Express $12,500), and IBM mainframes (CBR Express $150,000). Although ART-IM can be purchased as a separate product, it is part of CBR Express. ART-IM does forward-chaining, has object-oriented contructs, and a good C interface. It will also do backward chaining but you have to program that into the rules yourself (easy enough to do). For more information, write to Inference Corporation, 550 North Continental Boulevard, El Segundo, CA 90245, call 213-322-0200, or fax 213-322-3242. BABYLON. For more information, write to VW-GEDAS GmbH, Pascalstrasse 11, W-1000 Berlin 10, call +49 30-39-970-0, or fax +49 30-39-970-999. COGNATE runs on the Apple Macintosh and costs $250. For more information, write to Peridom, PO Box 1812, Bowie, MD 20716, or call 301-390-9570. See also MacUser 4(12):134, December, 1988. COGSYS. For more information, write to COGSYS Ltd., Enterprise House, Unit 37, Salford University Business Park, Salford M6 6AJ, England, or call 061-745-7604. C-PRS (Procedural Reasoning System in C) aims at representing and executing operating procedures. It allows the user to express and represent the conditional sequences of complex operations and to ensure their execution in real time while embedded in the application environment. C-PRS is useful for process control and supervision applications. The PRS technology has been applied to different tasks with real-time constraints and demands including the monitoring of several subsystems of the NASA space shuttle, the diagnosis and supervision of telecommunication networks (Telecom Australia), the control of mobile robots (SRI, LAAS), the control system of surveillance aircrafts (Grumman) and air traffic management (Civil Aviation Authority). The procedural reasoning technology was initially developed at the Artificial Intelligence Center of the Stanford Research Institute (Menlo Park, California). ACS Technologies has further developed and now markets C-PRS, the first commercial implementation of the Procedural Reasoning technology. C-PRS was developed with the most currently recognized standards: C, UNIX, X11, MOTIF. It guarantees some real time properties. It is available on numerous platforms and operating systems, including SPARC, DECstation, Sony News, Hewlett Packard, VxWorks, and others. For more information write to ACS Technologies, 5, Place du Village d'Entreprises, B.P. 556 31674 LABEGE Cedex, FRANCE, call 33-62-24-99-20, fax 33-61-39-86-74, or send email to Felix Ingrand . CRYSTAL runs on personal computers and is available from Intelligent Environemnts. See PC Magazine 8(2), January 31, 1989. ECLIPSE runs on personal computers (DOS, Windows). System V Unix and POSIX versions are also available. The syntax is derived from Inference Corporations' ART and is compatible with NASA's CLIPS. Features include data-driven pattern matching, forward and backward chaining, truth maintenance, support for multiple goals, relational and object-oriented representations, and integration with dBase. For more information, write to The Haley Enterprise, Inc., 413 Orchard Street, Sewickley, PA 15143, call 800-233-2622 (412-741-6420), or fax 412-741-6457. See also IEEE Computer, February 1991, pages 19-31. Cost is $999 for Windows, $1,999 for Unix, $799 for DOS 386, and $1,499 for OS/2. EXPERT-EASE runs on personal computers and is available from Expertech, Ltd. See PC User (103):94, March 29, 1989. Exper-OPS5-Plus runs on the Apple Macintosh and costs $495. For more information, write to ExperTelligence, 5638 Hollister, Suite 302, Goleta, CA 93117, call 800-828-0113 (except CA), 800-826-6144 (CA only), or 805-967-1797. See MacUser 4(12):134, December, 1988. EXSYS runs under MS-DOS, MS-Windows, Apple Macintosh, Sun Open Look, Unix and Vax and is available from Exsys, Inc., 1720 Louisiana Boulevard, NE, Suite 312, Albuquerque, NM 87110, call 800-676-8356 (505-256-8356), or fax 505-256-8359. See also PC Tech Journal 7(1):115, January, 1989. A demo version for MS-Windows or Macintosh is available for $40. [6/93] FLEX is a hybrid expert system toolkit available across a wide range of different hardware platforms which offers frames, procedures and rules integrated within a logic programming environment. FLEX supports interleaved forward and backward chaining, multiple inheritance, procedural attachment, an automatic question and answer system. Rules, frames and questions are described in a English-like Knowledge Specification Language (KSL) which enables the development of easy-to-read and easy-to-maintain knowledge bases. FLEX is implemented in, and has access to, Prolog. FLEX is available from LPA (who originally developed flex on the PC), and also from most major Prolog vendors under license, including Quintus, BIM, Interface, and ISL. FLEX has been used in numerous commercial expert systems, and prices on a PC running Windows or on a Macintosh start at around $1,000. [A review of Quintus-flex is expected in an upcoming issue of PC-AI. --mk] For more information contact: Logic Programming Associates Ltd, Studio 4, R.V.P.B., Trinity Road, London, SW18 3SX. Tel: +44 81 871 2016; Fax: +44 81 874 0449. Email: lpa@cix.compulink.co.uk G2 is a real-time expert system shell that runs on workstations and personal computers. It has real-time temporal reasoning, with rules, procedures, and functions built around an object-oriented paradigm. One can interface, both locally and over a network (TCP/IP and DECnet), to other programs (C and ADA), control systems, and databases. G2 provides distributed computing and a multi-user client/server architecture. For more information, write to Gensym Corporation, 125 Cambridge Park Drive, Cambridge, MA 02140, call 617-547-2500/9606, fax 617-547-1962, or send email to service@gensym.com (Amber S. Driesman, Manager of Customer Support). The G2 mailing list (for customers only) is g2-users@gensym.com. GBB, generic blackboard framework: provides: -- A high-performance blackboard database compiler and runtime library, which support pattern-based, multidimensional range-searching algorithms for efficient proximity-based retrieval of blackboard objects -- KS representation languages -- Generic control shells and agenda-management utilities -- Interactive, graphic displays for monitoring and examining blackboard and control components These components provide the infrastructure needed to build blackboard-based applications. GBB is available for DOS/Windows, Mac, Unix workstations (Sun, HP/Apollo, IBM, DEC, Silicon Graphics), Symbolics and TI Explorer Lisp machines. (GBB is a significantly enhanced, commercial version of the UMass GBB research framework, available via FTP from dime.cs.umass.edu:/gbb/.) NetGBB, distributed extension to GBB, provides to GBB the communication and coordination facilities needed to build heterogenous distributed blackboard applications. For more information write to Blackboard Technology Group, Inc., 401 Main Street, Amherst, MA 01002, call 413-256-8990, or fax 413-256-3179. To be added to the mailing lists, send mail to gbb-user-request@bn.cs.umass.edu. There are two mailing lists, gbb-user (moderated) and gbb-users (unmoderated). GOLDWORKS II. For more information, write to Gold Hill Computers, Inc., 26 Landsdowne Street, Cambridge, MA 02139, call 800-242-5477 (617-621-3300), or fax 617-621-0656. GURU is a real-time expert system that runs on personal computers. For more information, write to Micro Data Base Systems, Inc. (MDBS), PO Box 6089, Lafayette, IN 47903-6089 call 800-344-5832 (317-463-2581), or fax 317-448-6428. HyperX runs on the Apple Macintosh. For more information, write to Millenium Software, 1970 S. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach, CA 92651, or call 714-497-7439. See also MacWeek 3(5):6, January 31, 1989. HUGIN System is a software package for construction of model based expert systems in domains characterized by inherent uncertainty. The Hugin System contains an easy to use probability based deduction system, applicable to complex networks with cause-effect causal relations subject to uncertainty. The Hugin System presents a novel development. The implementation is based on an improvement of the award winning work by Lauritzen and Spiegelhalter: Local Computation with Probabilities on Graphical Structures and their Application to Expert Systems. The Hugin Demonstration, for Sun Workstations and PC-Windows, is available for anonymous ftp from the host hugin.dk (130.225.63.15). Please refer to the README file in the /pub/ directory. For more information write to Hugin Expert A/S, Niels Jernes Vej 10, DK-9220 Aalborg O, Phone +45 9815 6644, Fax: +45 9815 8550, Email: info@hugin.dk. ILOG RULES is a high performance embeddable rule-based inference engine. It is a forward chaining tool, written in C++ (hence it is object-oriented and supports inheritance mechanisms) and is also provided as a C++ library. It runs virtually on any Unix platform (e.g., HP97X0, Sun4, RS/6000, DecStations) as well as on PCs running DOS (with or without MS/Windows) or OS/2. It extends OPS/5 with nested premises (objects as values), rule packets (logical grouping of rules), a full Truth Maintenance System (TMS) for efficient non-monotonic reasoning, compilation of rules into C/C++ code, and an object oriented data-model in C++. ILOG RULES work directly on user objects, so interfacing is straightforward. C/C++ code may be included in rule conditions and actions. ILOG RULES is based on the fast XRETE implementation of the RETE algorithm developed by Thomson-CSF. For more information, contact ILOG, Inc., 2073 Landings Drive, Mountain View, CA 94043, tel 415-390-9000, fax 415-390-0946, e-mail info@ilog.com. European customers should contact ILOG SA, 2, av. Gallieni, BP 85, 94253 Gentilly CEDEX, France, tel +33 (1) 46-63-66-66, fax +33 (1) 46-63-15-82, e-mail info@ilog.fr. INTELLIGENT DEVELOPER runs on the Apple Macintosh and costs $395. For more information, write to Hyperpress Publishing, PO Box 8243, Foster City, CA 94404, or call 415-345-4620. See also MacUser 4(12):134, December, 1988. INTELLIGENCE COMPILER. For more information, write to Intelligence Ware 9800 S. Sepulveda Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90045-5228 call 213-417-8896, or fax 213-417-8897. Instant-Expert Plus runs on the Apple Macintosh and costs $498. For more information, write to Human Intellect Systems, 1670 South Amphlett Blvd, Suite 326, San Mateo, CA 94402, or call 800-522-5939 (415-571-5939). See also MacUser 4(12):134, December, 1988. KBMS runs on personal computers. For more information, write to AICorp, 138 Technology Drive, Waltham, MA 02254-9748, or call 617-891-6500. PC Week 6(35):63, September 4, 1989. KEE, ProKappa, and Kappa run on personal computers, workstations, and Lisp machines. For more information, write to IntelliCorp, Inc., 1975 El Camino Real West, Mountain View, CA 94040-2216, call 415-956-5660/5500/5777 or fax 415-965-5647. In Europe call +44-344-305305. See also CACM 31(4):382-401, April, 1988. KES and SNAP run on personal computers (KES $4,000), workstations (KES $10,000, SNAP $40,000 on most platforms), minicomputers (KES $25,000), IBM mainframes (KES $60,000). Although KES can be purchased separately, it is part of SNAP. For more information write to Software Architecture and Engineering, Inc., 1600 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 500, Arlington, VA 22209, call 703-276-7910, or fax 703-284-3821. Write to Template Software, 13100 Worldgate Drive, Suite 340, Herndon, Virginia 22070, call 703-318-1000, or fax 703-318-7378. Knowledge Craft runs on minicomputers and Lisp machines. For more information, write to Carnegie Group, 5 PPG Place, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, call 800-284-3424 (412-642-6900), or fax 412-642-6906. KnowledgeWorks runs on workstations (Sun3, Sparc, DEC (MIPS), HP 400,700, IBM RS6000, Intergraph, MIPS). It includes a CLOS-based object system, OPS compatible forward chainer (2500 firings/sec on a Sparc2), Prolog compatible backward chainer (40 KLIPS), graphical programming environment, user-defined conflict resolution, MetaRule Protocol for extending execution model, and a SQL interface for relational databases. For more information write to Harlequin Inc., One Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA, call 1-800-works-for-you (1-800-967-5749) or 617-252-0052, or fax 617-252-6505. European customers should write to Harlequin Ltd., Barrington Hall, Barrington, Cambridge CB2 5RG, UK, call 0223-872522, or fax 0223-872519. E-mail: knowledgeworks-request@harlqn.co.uk or works@harlequin.com. They also sell LispWorks (a Common Lisp and Prolog programming environment) -- see part 4 of the Lisp FAQ, MLWorks (an ML programming environment), and Watson (an intelligence analysis tool). Laser. For more information, write to Bell Atlantic Knowledge Systems, Inc., P.O. Box 3528, Princeton, NJ 08543-3528, or call 800-552-2257 (609-275-8393). LEVEL5 OBJECT runs on IBM PCs (Windows, $995), VAX/VMS, MVS and the Apple Macintosh ($695). LEVEL5 OBJECT is a robust object-oriented application development system with a tunable inference engine product. For more information, write to Information Builders, 1250 Broadway, New York, NY 10001, or call 800-444-4303 (212-736-4433). Customer Support is 212-736-6130. See also MacUser 4(12):134, December, 1988, AI Expert 4(5):71, May, 1989, and MacUser 6(2):88, February, 1990. M.4 runs on personal computers (DOS, Windows) and sells for $995 (special pricing is currently in effect, selling for $495). A version for Sun workstations and the Apple Macintosh is under development. It features a modular Kernel Library for linking into C-language applications, backward and forward chaining, pattern matching, certainty factors, procedural control, and an object-oriented programming system. M.4 is embeddable, configurable, and extendable. For more information, write to Cimflex Teknowledge Corporation, 1810 Embarcadero Road, Palo Alto, CA 94303, or call 800-285-0500 (415-424-0500), fax 415-493-2645. MacSMARTS, MacSMARTS - Professional, and HyperSMARTS run on the Apple Macintosh (all versions less than $500). For more information, write to Directory Cognition Technology, 55 Wheeler Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, or call 617-492-0246. See also MacUser 4(12):134, December, 1988. MERCURY KBE. For more information, write to Artificial Intelligence Technologies, Inc., 40 Saw Mill River Road, Hawthorne, NY 10532, call 800-333-1406 (914-347-6860), or fax 914-347-3182. MUSE. For more information, write to Cambridge Consultants, Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge CB4 4DW, England, or call 0223-420024 Cambridge. NEXPERT OBJECT runs on over 30 platforms supported including personal computers ($5000), Macintosh ($5000), workstations ($12,000), minicomputers, and mainframes. Nexpert Object is written in C, and includes a graphical user interface, knowledge acquisition tools, and forms system. For more information, write to Neuron Data, 156 University Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94301, call 800-876-4900 (415-321-4488), or fax 415-321-3728. Other office include New York, 212-832-8900; Philadelphia, 215-941-2981; Washington, DC, 703-821-8800; Los Angeles, 714-851-4621; Chicago, 708-955-3688; Houston, 713-739-9020; United Kingdom, 44-71-408-2333, fax 44-71-495-6274; France, 33-1-40-70-04-21, fax 33-1-47-23-71-43; and Japan, 81-3-3746-4371, fax 81-3-3746-4374. See also IEEE Software 5(5):98, September, 1988, PC Tech Journal 6(11):112, November, 1988, MacUser 4(12):134, December, 1988, MacUser 4(9):136, September, 1989, Computer Language 6(12):123, December, 1989, PC Week 7(26):43, July 2, 1990, MacWeek 4(25):10, July 10, 1990, and IEEE Expert December, 1991, page 72. OPS83 was developed by the developers of OPS5 as a successor to OPS5. OPS83 is written in C, and OPS83 rule bases can be embedded in C programs. OPS83 was the first OPS-like language to provide this integration of rule bases with C. OPS83 supports Generalized Forward Chaining (GFC), a new control structure that permits rules to be more expressive; one GFC rule can replace several conventional flat rules. (Details and examples are available on request.) The current version of OPS83 uses the proprietary Rete II algorithm to enable it to handle large, complex rule sets efficiently. A multi-windowed, point-and-click development environment called the OPS83 Workbench is offered. OPS83 is available for DOS, OS/2, UNIX, VMS, and some proprietary operating systems. For information, write Production Systems Technologies, Inc., 5001 Baum Blvd., Pittsburgh, PA 15213, call 412-683-4000, or fax 412-683-6347. Personal Consultant Plus. For more information, write to Texas Instruments PO Box 2909, MS/2240, Austin, TX 78769, or call 800-527-3500. RAL (Rule-extended Algorithmic Language) is a high-performance C-based expert systems tool. It was designed to permit seamless integration of rules and objects into C programs. RAL is a superset of C. RAL rules can operate directly on the data types used by the C code in your application. RAL "understands" C type declarations, function prototypes, #define constants, etc. C expressions, statements, macros, function calls, etc. can be embedded directly in the rules. RAL has an open architecture that permits it to be used with any GUI builder, data base library, or other library that can be used with C. No bridges are required. For efficiency, RAL rules are compiled into C code. Charles Forgy, the inventor of Rete, has developed a more efficient match algorithm called Rete II for RAL. (Benchmark results are available on request.) A special version of the language, called RAL/RT, adds the features that are required for real-time expert systems. RAL and RAL/RT have a multi-windowed, point-and-click development environment called the RAL Workbench. RAL and RAL/RT are available for DOS, MS Windows, OS/2, and UNIX. License fees for development systems are available on request. There are no run-time fees charged for distributing applications developed using RAL. For information, write Production Systems Technologies, Inc., 5001 Baum Blvd., Pittsburgh, PA 15213, call 412-683-4000, or fax 412-683-6347. Rete++ supports both forward and backward chaining. With Rete++ the programmer can develop object hierarchies and instantiate, manipulate, and access them using either C++, the standard rule-based syntax, or C. Asserting and modifying the data that is considered by rules is done by creating a C++ instance and performing assignments to and accessing the member data of the instance. Rete++ automatically generates C++ class taxonomies. The C++ components of Rete++ applications use these generated classes directly or further subclass them as needed. The Rete++ inference engine automatically considers any instances of a generated class (or its subclasses) in the matching of rule conditions. C++ data types provided by Rete++ allow more flexible representation and automatic reasoning using standard C++ syntax without extraneous function calls. Rete++ automatically monitors changes to C++ objects without requiring programmers to explicitly code function calls. Rete++ is provided as a C++ class library. As such, it may be linked as part of your C++ application. You may completely embed Rete++, with or without its graphical development environment. Modules for developing Case Based Reasoning and integration with databases are available for Rete++ applications. Rete++ integrates a dependency based Truth Maintenance System to preserve logically sound and complete reasoning in spite of non-monotonicity. Multiple rulesets and agendas support modular development and cooperating expert systems. Rete++ has an advanced browser for rule based programming. The Rete++ windowing development environment monitors the knowledge base with multiple views that are all updated in real-time, allowing for debugging, browsing, the monitoring and setting of break points, and the tracing of rules, facts and goals. Rete++ for Windows $1499, Windows NT and OS/2 $2249, Solaris and HP-UX $2999 command line interface and $3999 for X Windows. For more information write to The Haley Enterprise, Inc. 413 Orchard St., Sewickley, PA 15143, call 800-233-2622 (412-741-6420), or fax 412-741-6457. RTworks is a family of independent software modules developed for intelligent real-time data acquisition and monitoring, data analysis, message/data distribution, and message/data display. RTworks offers a number of sophisticated problem-solving strategies including knowledge-based systems, a point-and-click graphical user interface, temporal and statistical reasoning, and the ability to distribute an application over a heterogeneous network. Included with RTworks is a high-speed inference engine (RTie) which is used to analyze the data using objects, classes, procedures, and rules. The IE can perform trending, prediction and temporal reasoning of rapidly changing data. Displays can be built by non-programmers using a user-friendly DRAW program. More than 60 different formats are provided for displaying input data including strip charts, bar charts, control charts, dials, pie charts, and high-low graphs. Graphical objects can be tied to variables which dynamically control attributes such as color, scale, rotation, motion, animation, and more. RTworks runs in a client-server architecture in which the RTserver process intelligently distributes the application's messages and data to only the client prcoesses which need them. User-defined client processes can connect to the RTserver and send and receive messages with other processes in the application. Possible applications include process control, network monitoring, financial trading, and command and control. RTworks is available on a variety of Unix and VMS platforms under a floating license in which you pay only for the number of simultaneous users, and the software is not node-locked to a particular machine. Current RTworks customers include Lockheed, NASA, Dow Chemical, PG&E (Pacific, Gas, and Electric), SWIFT, Mazda, and NTT. For further information, write to Talarian Corporation, 444 Castro Street, Suite 140, Moutain View, CA 94041, call 415-965-8050, fax 415-965-9077, or send E-mail to don@talarian.com or tom@talarian.com. SMECI is an expert system shell based on Lisp. For more information, contact ILOG, Inc., 2073 Landings Drive, Mountain View, CA 94043, tel 415-390-9000, fax 415-390-0946, email info@ilog.com. European customers should write to ILOG, 2, av. Gallieni, BP 85, 94253 Gentilly Cedex, France, tel +33 (1) 46-63-66-66, fax +33 (1) 46-63-15-82, email info@ilog.fr. STATUTE Corporate V3.0 for Windows. Includes facilities for automatic document generation. Interfaces for Visual Basic, C, C++, and applications that can link to DLLs. Phone: 1-800-229-1954 (616-242-1982). Fax: 1-800-229-1959 (616-242-1948). TestBench, Shell is available from the Carnegie Group, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The development environment runs on the SUN workstations and the production environment on a number of platforms including PCs and NeXT machines. VP-EXPERT version 3.1 runs on the IBM PC under DOS. A student version of the product is available for around $40. The student version is fully functional but limited to 16k in the total size of the system. For more information, write to Wordtech Systems Inc., 21, Altarinda Road, Orinda, CA 94563, or call 800-288-3295, (510-254-0900). See also MacUser 4(12):134, December, 1988. YAPS is a tool for building expert systems and other programs that use a rule-based knowledge representation in Lisp. The YAPS library provides a CLOS class and appropriate methods which the programmer may mix into his/her own classes or use directly. Rules and facts about an instance are associated with the instance. Instead of one large knowledgebase with many rules which are hard to debug and maintain, the programmer creates smaller knowledge-bases which are modular and more efficient. The YAPS knowledge-bases can interact with and be controlled by the programmer's other modules, making hybrid systems straightforward. Introduced by Liz Allen at AAAI-83, YAPS is now available on Apple Macintosh, Sun3 and Sun4 (SPARC), DEC VAX under VMS and Ultrix, and 88Open platforms. On workstations, a single license costs $3995 and on the Macintosh (under Macintoch Common Lisp), it is $445. YAPS runs in most commercial Common Lisps including Allegro CL, Harlequin Lispworks, Lucid CL, IBUKI CL, and Macintosh Common Lisp. YAPS is also available for the TI Explorer and Symbolic Lisp Machines, and a Flavors version is available for Sun3 in Franz Lisp. Other ports are underway -- for price and availability contact College Park Software at 461 W. Loma Alta Dr., Altadena, CA 91001-3841, USA; or by email at info@cps.altadena.ca.us, or call 818-791-9153 (voice) or 818-791-1755 (FAX). ---------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: [1-A] Acknowledgements This FAQ was originally based on posts by Jason Trenouth , George Betzos , and Foxvog Douglas , as well as parts of the commercial products section of the AI FAQ. Thanks also to Arnold Bloemer , Hans Voss, Stephan Weber, Tom Laffey, ljs@zycor.lgc.com, Hal Waters, Philip Vanneste, Daniel Corkill, Bruce Chih-Lung Lin, Willem Van Dyk, Kan-Lee Liou, Les Degroff, Alex Kean, Bob Orchard, Steve Witt, Cameron Laird, Thomas A. Russ, Peter Pavek, Ingemar Hulthage, Jerry Franke, Julian Smart, Andrew Verden, Remi Lissajoux, Patrick Albert, Patrick Suel, Liz Allen. Thanks to Richard Fozzard for information about MIKE and ES. ---------------------------------------------------------------- ;;; *EOF*