Method for processing an expert system rulebase on a system having limited memory

摘要

A method for running an expert system on a data processing system in which the Rulebase is segmented into contextual units so that the system memory can accommodate each unit. Portions of the Rulebase containing data or knowledge that is not needed in a particular application may then be eliminated. The segmenting of the Rulebase also allows the contextual units of the application to be paged into and out of the system as needed. The various intersegment relationships are managed by the system as units are paged into and out of memory. A second Rulebase unit may be called by the first unit and executed at any time during the processing of the first Rulebase. Provision is made in the form of a Global attribute to selectively identify and store the data that is relevant to the application and that has been accumulated up to the point where another unit is called so that at some time later in the process, when the system returns to the first unit, it can proceed from the last RULE node that was processed. Selected data that has been identified as global during processing of the first unit is used to update selected nodes in the second unit of the Rulebase after it has been paged into the system. Selected data collected during the processing of the second unit is passed to the first unit when the system returns to complete processing that unit.