[1-6] Commercial Expert System Shells
The commercial products below are listed in alphabetical order.
ACQUIRE is knowledge acquisition system and expert system shell. It is a
complete development environment for building and maintaining
knowledge-based applications. It provides a step-by-step methodology for
knowledge engineering that allows the domain experts themselves to be
directly involved in structuring and encoding the knowledge. (The direct
involvement of the domain expert improves the quality, completeness and
accuracy of acquired knowledge, lowers development and maintenance
costs, and increases their control over the form of the software
application.) Features include a structured approach to knowledge
acquisition; a model of knowledge acquisition based on pattern
recognition; knowledge represented as objects, production rules and
decision tables; handling uncertainty by qualitative, non-numerical
procedures; extremely thorough knowledge bases; sophisticated report
writing facilities; and self documenting knowledge bases in a hypertext
environment.
ACQUIRE-SDK, their Software Development Kit, provides: callable libraries for
MS-DOS,and SCO Unix; DLL's for Asmetrix TooBook, Windows, Windows NT,
Windows 95 and Win 32; and custom controls for Visual Basic. Call or email
them for information on how to utilize the SDK to deliver applications over
the WWW.
The ACQUIRE development package (knowledge acquisition system and expert
system shell) costs $995 for Windows 3.1 and includes manual, a tutorial,
on-line help and telephone helpline. For more information please visit their
web page at
http://vvv.com/ai/
For an example of an ACQUIRE application that is running over the web
try their Whale Watcher demonstration at
http://vvv.com/ai/demos/whale.html
For more information, write to Acquired Intelligence Inc, Suite 205,
1095 McKenzie Avenue, Victoria, Canada V8P 2L5, call 604-479-8646, fax
604-479-0764, or send email <sales@aiinc.bc.ca>.
ACTIVATION FRAMEWORK runs on personal computers (DOS, Windows) and UNIX
workstations. This tool is not a traditional 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. For more information, write to the sales
office at The Real-Time Intelligent Systems Corporation, 26 Worthen,
Chelmsford, MA 01824, call 508-250-4633, or fax 508-256-8132. To reach
the development office write to 76 Otis Street, Westborough, MA 01581,
call 508-870-0043, fax 508-870-0148, or send email to rtis@world.std.com.
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
Angoss Knowledge Seeker. Angoss is a data-mining tool that can be used
to produce knowledge bases of rules by infering cause and effect
relationships from a database. The DOS version costs $799 and the
Windows version $899. For more information, write to Angoss Software
International Ltd., 430 King Street W., Suite 201, Toronto M5V 1J5,
Canada, call 416-593-1122, or fax 416-593-5077.
ART*Enterprise (Brightware, Inc., formerly a division of Inference
Corporation). ART*Enterprise is the latest of the family of rule-based
development environments originating with ART in the mid-1980s. It is a
development environment for enterprise-wide applications,
incorporating rules, a full object system which includes features
currently not present in C++ or Smalltalk, and a large collection of
object classes for UI development across platforms (from Windows to
OS/2 to Unix), access to databases (SQL-based and ODBC-based), and
multi-person development. The ART*Enterprise environment provides a
forward chaining engine where backward chaining can be implemented,
though it is not supported directly. ART*Enterprise also provides a
CBR kernel for those who are interested in incorporating it into their
applications. For further information, contact Brightware, Inc.,
101 Rowland Way, Suite 310, Novato, CA 94945, call 1-800-532-2890
(1-415-899-9070), fax 415-899-9080, or email info@brightware.com.
Their home page is located at the URL
http://www.brightware.com/
In addition to the usual company and product information, this page features
several job openings.
Arity Expert Development Package is an expert system that integrates
rule-based and frame-based representations of knowledge with several
different kinds of certainty factors. The OS/2 version costs $495 and
the DOS version $295. For more information, write to Arity Corporation,
Damonmill Square, Concord, MA 01742, call 800-722-7489 (508-371-1243),
fax 508-371-1487, or send email to 73677.2614@compuserve.com or Paul G.
Weiss <pgweiss@netcom.com>.
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.
CAM Software sells two expert system tools, DClass and LogicTree.
DClass is a decision-tree system used for manufacturing applications.
LogicTree is a decision-making system designed for non-programmers.
For more information, write to CAM Software, 390 W. 800 N., Suite 103,
PO Box 276, Orem, UT 84059-0276, call 800-293-6777, or fax 801-225-0286.
CBR Express (Inference Corporation). CBR Express family of
products supports case-based retrieval of information. For further
information contact Inference Corporation, 550 N. Continental Blvd., El
Segundo, CA 90245, call 800-322-9923 (310-322-0200), fax 310-322-3242,
or email marketing@inference.com. Their home page is located at the URL
http://www.inference.com/
In addition to the usual company and product information, this page
features a live demo of case-based retrieval in action and several job
openings.
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.
COMDALE/C, COMDALE/X, and ProcessVision. COMDALE/C is a real-time
expert system designed for industrial process monitoring and control.
+ COMDALE/C allows requests for justification of recommendations,
conclusions, and control actions without interrupting the decision
making process. It can deal with uncertainty in knowledge and data,
and has an open architecture and time-based reasoning. Other features
include: full object-oriented configuration; full networking
capabilities; alarm processing; an interrupt driven controller;
trending and historical data collection; time-scheduled events; a
realtime database, and interfaces with DCSs, PLCs and other I/O
devices.
+ COMDALE/X is an off-line consultative expert system which
queries the user for information required to make its decisions.
COMDALE/X is included with COMDALE/C as the development tool for
real-time expert systems. COMDALE/X has the capability to incorporate
hypertext documents with the reasoning abilities of the expert system
to produce expert hyper manuals which provide information and generate
advice through an easy to use interface.
+ ProcessVision is a real-time process monitoring and control
software package. Based on an open and modular architecture,
ProcessVision provides a graphical operator interface; intuitive
object-oriented display configuration, smart alarming, sensor
validation, hot standby, and unlimited connectivity to all your
process instrumentation in one global environment.
For more information, write to Comdale Technologies (Canada) Inc., The
Comdale Building, 701 Evans Avenue, Suite 600, Toronto, Ontario, CANADA,
M9C 1A3, call 416-620-1234, fax 416-620-4526, or send email to
info@comdale.com, or see their web site,
http://www.comdale.com/
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 email to
<ingrand@ingenia.fr> or <cprs@ingenia.fr>.
CPR (Case-based Problem Resolution) is a C++ class library and
Help!CPR is a helpdesk and knowledge authoring application that uses
CPR. CPR is being embedded within call tracking systems and Help!CPR
competes directly with Inference Corporations's CBR Express and
CasePoint (CasePoint being CBR Express without authoring
capabilities). For more information, write to The Haley Enterprise,
Inc., 413 Orchard Street, Sewickley, PA 15143, call 800-233-2622
(412-741-6420), fax 412-741-6457, send email to info@haley.com, or see
their web site
http://www.haley.com/
or ftp site
ftp://ftp.haley.com/
These sites include their literature in PostScript and HTML, as well
as their software.
CRYSTAL runs on personal computers and is available from Intelligent
Environemnts. For more information, write to Intelligent Environments
Europe Ltd., Crystal House, PO Box 51, Sunbury-on-Thames, Middlesex TW16
7UL, England, call 44-0-932-772266, or fax 44-0-932-771499.
See PC Magazine 8(2), January 31, 1989.
CxPERT is an expert system shell that produces royalty-free C code. For
more information, write to Software Plus Ltd., 1315 Pleasant Meadow
Road, Crofton, MD 21114, or call 301-261-0264.
The Easy Reasoner (TM) is a Case-Based Retrieval (CBR) tool with
Reasoning that provides an adaptive associative memory; retrieves
similar cases from memory given a new case; extends Query-by-Example
(QBE) by providing Query-by-Similarity(TM) (QBS); indexes existing
databases using decision trees; supports xBase, ODBC, and SQL
databases; maximizes information while minimizing complexity;
automatically filteres noise to simplifies decision trees; induces
automatically or under explicit control; ranks and retrieves
classified cases by similarity; efficiently retrieves similar cases
from large databases; efficiently retrieves most similar case from
large DBs; efficiently retrieves "next most similar" case; supports
multiple decision tree indices per database; supports multiple
decision trees per field; classifies new information using any
decision tree; automatically or interactively classifies new cases;
handles missing data and "don't know" responses; provides customizable
thesaurus for nominal fields; provides adaptive, context-sensitive,
default reasoning; provides adaptive estimation using decision trees;
predicts or ranks values for nominal or ordinal fields; automatically
learns N-dimensional similarity spaces; quickly retrieves closest case
from similarity space; ranks cases by distance in similarity space;
retrieves records where similarity depends on text; circumvents
spelling problems with N-M-grams; recognizes various forms of English
dictionary words; automatically determines information content per
word; automatically determines thesaural information content. Easy
Reasoner. The Easy Reaoner 16 bit Windows Toolkit costs $249, The Easy
Reaoner 32 bit Windows Toolkit costs $499, The Easy Reasoner OS/2
Toolkit costs $499, and The Easy Reasoner UNIX X/Motif Toolkit costs
$999. UNIX Versions available for Sun OS, Sun Solaris, HP UX, Data
General, AIX. For more information, write to The Haley Enterprise,
Inc., 413 Orchard Street, Sewickley, PA 15143, call 800-233-2622
(412-741-6420), fax 412-741-6457, send email to info@haley.com, or see
their web site
http://www.haley.com/
or ftp site
ftp://ftp.haley.com/
These sites include their literature in PostScript and HTML, as well
as their software.
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), fax
412-741-6457, or send email to info@haley.com, or see their web site
http://www.haley.com/
or ftp site
ftp://ftp.haley.com/
These sites include their literature in PostScript and HTML, as well
as their software. See also IEEE Computer, February 1991, pages
4-12. The cost is $499 for the Eclipse 16 bit Windows Toolkit, $999
for Eclipse 32 bit Windows Toolkit or Eclipse OS/2 Toolkit, and $1,999
for Eclipse UNIX X/Motif Toolkit. Versions are available for Sun OS,
Sun Solaris, HP UX, Data General, AIX.
Emerald Empower Procedural Advisor for Macintosh or PC Windows. $6800
Fault trees are built graphically to automate the decision path that an
expert uses for troubleshooting a problem. Emerald Intelligence, Inc,
3850E Research Park Dr, Ann Arbor, MI 48108, call 313-663-8757, or fax
313-663-8757.
Esteem is a case-based reasoning tool for Windows that integrates
case-based reasoning with rules. For more information write to Esteem
Software Inc., 302 E. Main, Cambridge City, IN 47327, call
317-478-3955, or fax 317-478-3550.
EXSYS Professional runs under MS-DOS, MS-Windows, Macintosh, SunOS,
Solaris, Unix and Vax. It supports backward and forward chaining, linear
programming, fuzzy logic, neural networks, and has a SQL interface.
For more information please visit their
web page at
http://www.exsysinfo.com/
For examples of EXSYS applications running over the web
try their Web Runtime Engine demonstrations at
http://www.exsysinfo.com/Wren/wren.html
For an MS-Windows executable demo of EXSYS Professional/EXSYS RuleBook
ftp://ftp.exsysinfo.com/pub/demos/
These sites include their literature in PDF and HTML, as well as their
software.
For more information, send Email to info@exsysinfo.com,
write to 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.
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 (0) 181-871-2016; Fax: +44 (0) 181-874-0449.
Email: lpa@cix.compulink.co.uk. In the US call 1-800-949-7567.
Their web page is located at the URL
http://www.lpa.co.uk
Foundation Technologies sells expert system products and services for
financial applications, such as pension management. For more
information write to Foundation Technologies Inc., One Kendall Square,
Cambridge, MA 02139, call 617-720-2760, or fax 617-720-4153.
Gensym's G2 offers a graphical, object-oriented environment for
creating intelligent applications that monitor, diagnose, and control
dynamic events in on-line and simulated environments. Featuring a
structured natural language for creating rules, models, and
procedures, G2 is the foundation of all Gensym application products
and end-user applications. Gensym's application products include the G2
Diagnostic Assistant (GDA), which provides a visual programming
environment for creating intelligent process management applications.
NeurOn-Line, another Gensym product, allows users to easily create
neural network applications. G2 includes concurrent execution of
rules and procedures and the ability to reason about behavior over
time. G2 GUIDE allows users to easily create graphical end user
interfaces and real-time displays. Gensym's Telewindows provides a
powerful multi-user client/server environment that allows users to share G2
applications. Gensym also offers G2 Bridge Products for connectivity to other
programs (C and ADA) and real-time data systems including relational
databases, distributed control systems, and programmable logic controllers.
Gensym supports its products worldwide through 26 direct sales offices and a
network of over 100 marketing partners. For more information, please write
to Gensym Corporation, 125 Cambridge Park Drive, Cambridge, MA 02140 USA,
call +617-547-2500, fax +617-547-1962, or send email to info@gensym.com.
Gensym's homepage is located at
http://www.gensym.com
(The Gensym page was formerly located at http://www.industry.net/gensym.
The IndustryNet page will be removed this spring.)
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 ftp.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 800-KSS-8990 or 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). Blackboard Technlogy has a
WWW page at the URL
http://www.bbtech.com/
GOLDWORKS III. 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 an expert system development environment and RDBMS that offers a
wide variety of information processing tools combined with
knowledge-based capabilities such as forward chaining, backward
chaining, mixed chaining, multi-value variables, and fuzzy reasoning.
For more information about GURU and the other database engines,
development tools, and services offered by Micro Data Base Systems,
please write to Micro Data Base Systems, Inc., 1305 Cumberland Avenue,
P.O. Box 2438, West Lafayette, IN 47906-0438, call 800-445-MDBS/6327
(317-463-7200), fax 317-463-1234, or send email to info@mdbs.com.
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
hugin.dk:/pub/README [130.225.63.15]
The WWW home page for HUGIN is accessible by the URL
http://hugin.dk/
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.
Icarus is an expert systems development tool for PCs. It includes
links to Lotus and dBASE files, forward and backward chaining, and
Bayesian confidence factors. For more information, write to Icarus,
11300 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 02852-3088, call 301-881-9350, or
fax 301-881-2542.
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, 9, rue de
Verdun, BP 85, 94253 Gentilly CEDEX, France,
tel +33 (1) 49-08-35-00, fax +33 (1) 49-08-35-10, e-mail info@ilog.fr.
The URL of ILOG's web page is
http://www.ilog.fr
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.
KDS is a case-based system that produces rules from cases. For more
information, write to KDS Corporation, 934 Cornell Street, Wilmeete, IL
60091-1405, call 708-251-2621, or fax 708-251-6489.
KEE, ProKappa, and Kappa are expert system development packages that run
on personal computers, workstations, and Lisp machines. Features include
ATM, rule-based reasoning, and OOP support. For more information, write
to IntelliCorp, Inc., 1975 El Camino Real West, Suite 101, Mountain View, CA
94040-2216, call 415-965-5700/5500 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 is an expert-system development toolkit for
scheduling, design, and configuration applications. 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 from Harlequin runs on a variety of Unix platforms,
including Sun Sparc and clones (SunOS and Solaris), IBM RS/6000 (AIX),
DEC MIPS (Ultrix), DEC Alpha (OSF/1), HP PA (HP-UX), and SGI (IRIX).
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 further information,
contact by e-mail worldwide:
knowledgeworks-request@harlequin.com (OR @harlequin.co.uk)
or in the US:
FAX: 617-252-6505
Voice: 800-WORKS-4-YOU (800-967-5749) or 617-374-2400 or 617-252-0052
Mail: Harlequin Inc., One Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142
or in Europe:
FAX: 0223-872-519 (OR 44-1223-872-519 from outside UK)
Voice: 0223-873-800 OR -872-522 (OR 44-1223-873-800 from outside UK)
Telex: 818440 harlqn g
Mail: Harlequin Ltd., Barrington Hall, Barrington, Cambridge, CB2 5RG
Harlequin also sells LispWorks (a Common Lisp and Prolog programming
environment described in part 4 of the Lisp FAQ), MLWorks (an ML
programming environment), and Watson (an intelligence analysis tool).
K-Vision is a knowledge acquisition and visualization tool. It runs on
Windows, DOS, and UNIX workstations. For more information write to
Ginesys Corporation, 1200 Woodruff Road, Suite C-9, Greenville, SC
29607-5731, call 800-277-8338 (803-288-8338), or fax 803-458-9050.
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 for Microsoft Windows runs on an IBM PC compatible
computer using Windows 3.1 or above. LEVEL5 OBJECT is a robust
object-oriented application development system with a tunable inference
engine product. For more information, write to Information Builders,
503 Fifth Avenue, Indialantic, FL 32903, call 800-444-4303
(407-729-9046), fax 407-727-7615, or email to 76366.323@compuserve.com,
techsup@l5r.com, or sales@l5r.com. Their Web server is located at the URL
http://www.l5r.com/level5.html
For Customer Support call 407-984-8705.
There are several versions of the M.4 product. M.4 VB is a Visual
Basic custom control that sells for $199. The full M.4 package runs on
personal computers (DOS, Windows) and sells for $995. It features a modular
kernel library that can be linked into C-language applications, backward and
forward chaining, pattern matching, certainty factors, procedural control,
an object-oriented representation, and ODBC hooks. M.4 is embeddable,
configurable, and extendable and is provided as libraries, a custom control
(VBX), and as a DDE Server. Working VB, Visual C++, ToolBook, and DOS GUIs
are provided to illustrate various integration techniques. M.4 is also
available as embeddable libraries for Sun SPARCstations for $2,495 and as
embeddable libraries for Macintosh System 7 for $995. For more information,
write to Teknowledge Corporation (formerly Cimflex Teknowledge Corporation),
1810 Embarcadero Road, Palo Alto, CA 94303, or call 800-285-0500
(415-424-0500), fax 415-493-2645, or visit http://www.teknowledge.com/M4
MailBot, from Daxtron Labs, is a personal E-Mail agent for Microsoft Mail.
MailBot provides filtering, forwarding, notification, automatic
question answering and listserv like capabilities. MailBot can act as a
expert system shell for mail. The front-end translates user rule inputs
into a variant of Prolog. A API exists for writting action code in
Visual Basic. More information is available from the URL
http://www.polaris.net/~daxtron/mailbot.htm
MEM-1 is a Lisp-based language that aids in the development of
Case-Based Reasoning systems; provides facilities to define case
structures, create cases, divide cases into sub-cases, weigh case
attributes, define indexing schemes and similarity functions, adapt
solutions and define procedural adaptation rules. Runs on Windows, DOS,
Sun, DECStation, RS/6000, and Macintosh. Price: $199 ($50 for
educational institutions). For more information, write to CECASE, 2291
Irving Hill Drive, Lawrence, KS 66045, call 913-864-4896, fax
913-864-7789, or send email to mem1info@cecase.ukans.edu
ModelQuest 4.0. Runs on Windows 3+, NT, 95 ($995). ModelQuest is easy to
learn and use so you can quickly take advantage of its power. ModelQuest
produces more accurate and robust models as well as royalty-free C code.
For more information, write to Abtech Corporation, 1575 State Farm
Boulevard, Charlottesville, VA 22901, call 804-977-0686, fax
804-977-9615, e -mail sales@abtech.com, or visit their web page
http://www.abtech.com/
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 offices 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. [This entry is a bit out of date. Nexpert Object is now part
of a larger product called "Smart Elements", which includes Open
Interface 2.0 -- an object-oriented GUI developer -- in addition to
Nexpert Object 3.0. Any Neuron Data folks out there want to redo this entry?]
Object Management Workbench* (OMW) is the first object-oriented
analysis and design tool which incorporates directly executable
diagrams and business rules. OMW works with Kappa(, an integrated,
visual programming environment for developing client/server
applications. Kappa applications are developed on Unix and can be
delivered on either Unix or MS Windows. With Kappa CommManager*, an
object request broker, customers can distribute Kappa applications,
including program logic, across Unix, MS Windows and MVS. Kappa-PC(
is IntelliCorps' integrated MS Windows-based programming environment
for departmental developers. For more information, write to
IntelliCorp, Inc., 1975 El Camino Real West, Mountain View, CA
94040-2216, call 415-965-5700 or fax 415-965-5647. In Europe call
+44-344-305305. See also CACM 31(4):382-401, April, 1988.
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.
PowerSMARTS (multimedia rule-based logic), DataSMARTS (database mining),
NeuroSMARTS (neural net) for Macintosh or PC Windows. Costs range from
$495 to $4995. Cognition Technology Corporation, 1000 Massachusetts Ave,
Cambridge, MA 02138, 617-492-0246, FAX 617-492-0247, Internet ctcma@aol.com
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.
ReMind. ReMind is a case-based reasoning tool. For more information,
write to Cognitive Systems Inc., 880 Canal Street, Stamford, CT 06907,
call 203-356-7756, or fax 203-356-7760.
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++ 16 bit Windows Toolkit costs $999, Rete++ 32
bit Windows Toolkit costs $1,999, Rete++ OS/2 Toolkit costs $1,999,
and Rete++ UNIX X/Motif Toolkit costs $2,999. UNIX Versions available
for Sun OS, Sun Solaris, HP UX, Data General, AIX. For more
information write to The Haley Enterprise, Inc. 413 Orchard St.,
Sewickley, PA 15143, call 800-233-2622 (412-741-6420 or 412-967-1100), fax
412-741-6457, or send email to info@haley.com, or see
their web site
http://www.haley.com/
or ftp site
ftp://ftp.haley.com/
These sites include their literature in PostScript and HTML, as well
as their software.
RT/Expert is an expert system development package integrated into the
SystemBuild development environment that runs on PCs, UNIX, and VMS
systems. For more information, write to Integrated Systems Inc., 3260
Jay Street, Santa Clara, CA 95054, call 408-980-1500, or fax 408-980-0400.
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 info@talarian.com, or look on the world-wide web at
http://www.mainstreet.net/talarian/
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.
Sophos. For more information, write to Cognisys Consultants Inc., 7355
Trans Canada Highway, Suite 210, Saint-Laurent, Quebec, CANADA H4T
1T3, call 514-856-2311, or fax 514-856-2368.
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).
TechMate is a real life expert system designed to serve as a decision
aid and productivity tool for maintenance engineers and technicians.
TechMate minimizes the expertise required from the technician to
troubleshoot and diagnose problems in even highly sophisticated and
complex units. Oriented for the functional level, TechMate can
troubleshoot units that contain analog, digital and mechanical modules
in electronic, electro-optic, hydraulic, or mechanical systems and
devices. TechMate is used in many fault isolation applications in
field service, depot facilities, and production lines. Its learning
algorithms make TechMate grow smarter with use. TechMate is a
model-based system that derives its intelligence from universal
built-in knowledge bases and inference mechanisms, and from specific
knowledge about the UUT (Unit Under Test) supplied by the test
designer. It generates diagnostic assessments from the equipments
block diagram (which can be entered manually or imported
electronically) and the characteristics of the symptoms and tests. It
is also capable of diagnosing multiple faults. For a given set of
symptoms and test results (including BIT results), TechMate's
diagnostic algorithms rank candidate faulty modules by their
likelihood of failure. It may also zoom in to further assess the fault
likelihood of each individual sub-module. Next, TechMate identifies
and evaluates the tests that may be used to isolate a fault, and
proposes the most cost-efficient tests. The sequence of tests is
dynamically reordered based on the symptoms, BIT and test responses,
thereby eliminating redundant tests. TechMate provides on-line
documentation of the device and its tests. It also includes a database
tool for storing and retrieving administrative data and sharing it
with commercial DBMS. TechMate can be interfaced with a wide variety
of test instruments and ATE systems. TechMate runs on Microsoft
Windows and on UNIX/X-Windows. TechMate customers include Texas
Instruments, Northrop, Raytheon, Honeywell, BARCO, British Gas,
Deutche Aerospace, and Siemens Plessey. For further information, call
IET Intelligent Electronics at 617-229-5855, fax 617-221-5692, or send
E-mail to sales@ietusa.com, or look on the world-wide web at
http://www.ietusa.com/
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. 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.
VBXpert is a VBX custom control that uses the Rete Algorithm to add
expertise to Visual Basic applications. VBXpert extends Visual Basic
to support rule-based knowledge-based systems development by encapsulating
the Rete Algorithm within a VBX custom control. It is a true custom
control with Visual Basic property and event editing support and provides
convenient properties that can be accessed and set by VB code to control
embedded reasoning. VBXpert also provides: inference engine events that
execute code you enter using the Visual Basic editor; a general-purpose
"Callback" event to call Visual Basic from the actions of rules; efficient
processing, even for a thousand if-then rules; automatic subgoaling and
logical deduction; automatic retraction of invalid or outdated conclusions;
Visual Basic declarations for Eclipse DLLs; supports Visual Basic's ANY
and Variant data types; supports multiple concurrent Visual Basic apps;
includes Eclipse DLLs and executable; includes C source code for the VBX;
VBXpert for Windows $99 (price shown is for domestic check, VISA,
MasterCard, and American Express orders only.) The Haley Enterprise, Inc.
413 Orchard St., Sewickley, PA 15143-2029 (800) 233-2622, 412-741-6420,
Info@Haley.COM, or see their web site
http://www.haley.com/
or ftp site
ftp://ftp.haley.com/
These sites include their literature in PostScript and HTML, as well
as their software.
Visual Expert is a GUI-based expert system development tool for Windows.
For more information, write to SoftSell Technologies, 16150 NE 85th
Avenue, Suite 224, Redmond, WA 98052, call 206-556-1436, or fax 206-883-9002.
VP-EXPERT version 3.1 runs on the IBM PC under DOS. It costs $349. 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., PO Box 1747, Orinda, CA 94563, call 510-689-1200, or fax
510-689-1263. See also MacUser 4(12):134, December, 1988.
XpertRule for Windows represents knowledge as decision trees, tables
of decision examples, exception trees and sets of pattern rules. It
can produce C code. Fuzzy Logic and Genetic Algorithm optimization
are included. For more information, write to Attar Software USA, PO Box
68, Harvard, MA 01451-0068, call 800-456-3966, or fax 508-456-8383.
European customers should write to Attar Software Limited, Newlands
House, Leigh, Lancashire, UK WN7 4HN, or send email to info@attar.co.uk
See also their home page at http://www.attar.com/
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).
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