Xcon

Xcon

The R1 (later called XCON, for eXpert CONfigurer) program was a production-rule-based system written in OPS5 by John P. McDermott of CMU in 1978 to assist in the ordering of DEC's VAX computer systems by automatically selecting the computer system components based on the customer's requirements. The development of XCON followed two previous unsuccessful efforts to write an expert system for this task, in FORTRAN and BASIC).

XCON first went into use in 1980 in DEC's plant in Salem, New Hampshire. It eventually had about 2500 rules. By 1986, it had processed 80,000 orders, and achieved 95-98% accuracy. It was estimated to be saving DEC $25M a year by reducing the need to give customers free components when technicians made errors, by speeding the assembly process, and by increasing customer satisfaction.

Before XCON, when ordering a VAX from DEC, every cable, connection, and bit of software had to be ordered separately. (Computers and peripherals were not sold complete in boxes as they are today). The sales people were not always very technically expert, so customers would find that they had hardware without the correct cables, printers without the correct drivers, a processor without the correct language chip, and so on. This meant delays and caused a lot of customer dissatisfaction and resultant legal action. XCON interacted with the sales person, asking critical questions before printing out a coherent and workable system specification/order slip.

XCON's success led DEC to rewrite XCON as XSEL- a version of XCON intended for use by DEC's salesforce to aid a customer in properly configuring their VAX (so they wouldn't, say, choose a computer too large to fit through their doorway or choose too few cabinets for the components to fit in). Location problems and configuration were handled by yet another expert system, XSITE.

McDermott's 1980 paper on R1 won the AAAI Classic Paper Award in 1999. Legendarily, the name of R1 comes from McDermott, who supposedly said as he was writing it, "Three years ago I wanted to be a knowledge engineer, and today I are one."

References

*"The AI Business: The commercial uses of artificial intelligence", ed. Patrick Winston and Karen A. Prendergast. ISBN 0-262-73077-4

External links

* [http://www.cwa.mdx.ac.uk/bis2040/lect6ES2/xCon.html "Configuration with R1/XCon (1978)"]
* [http://www.aaai.org/Awards/classic.php "AAAI Classic Paper Award"]
* [http://www.ruleworks.co.uk/mobat/r1-soar.htm "R1-SOAR: A Research Experiment in Computer Learning"]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • XCON — XCON,   Expertensystem …   Universal-Lexikon

  • XCon — El programa R1 (luego llamado XCON, por Configurador Experto) era un sistema de producción basado en reglas escrito en OPS5 por John P. McDermott de CMU en 1978 para asistir a los pedidos de los sistemas de computadores VAX de DEC (Digital… …   Wikipedia Español

  • XCON — Expert Configuration Assistant von DEC entwickeltes Expertensystem (KI) zur Kernel Konfiguration, meist in Verbindung mit XSEL …   Acronyms

  • XCON — Expert Configuration Assistant von DEC entwickeltes Expertensystem (KI) zur Kernel Konfiguration, meist in Verbindung mit XSEL …   Acronyms von A bis Z

  • XCON — abbr. Cross connect …   Dictionary of abbreviations

  • Junta (comics) — Superherobox| caption=Junta, art by Joe Bennett. character name=Junta publisher=Marvel Comics debut= Black Panther vol.3, #59 creators=Christopher Priest Dan Fraga real name=Manuel Diego Armand Vicente species = homeworld = alliances=The Crew C.I …   Wikipedia

  • Charles Forgy — Dr Charles L. Forgy (born December 12, 1949 in Texas) is a computer scientist, known for developing the Rete algorithm used in his OPS5 and other production system languages used to build expert systems. Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early Life 1.2… …   Wikipedia

  • Computer-aided maintenance — (not to be confused with CAM which usually stands for Computer Aided Manufacturing) refers to systems that utilize software to organize planning, scheduling and support of maintenance and repair. A common application of such systems is the… …   Wikipedia

  • Web conferencing — refers to a service that allows conferencing events to be shared with remote locations. Most vendors also provide either a recorded copy of an event, or a means for a subscriber to record an event. The service allows information to be shared… …   Wikipedia

  • History of artificial intelligence — The history of artificial intelligence begins in antiquity with myths, stories and rumors of artificial beings endowed with intelligence and consciousness by master craftsmen. In the middle of the 20th century, a handful of scientists began to… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”