Resident EXpert           XT- and AT-compatible expert system
Ricoh Announces Its Experts
 
Microbytes Daily News Service
Copyright (c) 1989, McGraw-Hill, Inc.
Ricoh's claims that its Resident EXpert (REX) board is the first
XT- and AT-compatible add-in board with an "expert system"
incorporated on silicon. Previous "expert systems," says Ricoh,
were software simulations.
 
The bottom line is speed: Ricoh claims its coprocessor board can
accomplish expert systems applications in seconds where they used
to take minutes.
 
The REX coprocessor board is coupled with Rule Compiler software,
which gives you a set of prompts for developing custom expert
systems. Ricoh claims the software that goes along with the REX
board is also the first expert system development tool that
doesn't require a specially-trained expert system engineer for
developing custom applications.
 
Rule Compiler software stores knowledge as a series of "If x,
then y" statements, or rules. The REX chip directly processes the
rules, instead of relying on the more traditional process of
having the computer's CPU convert them into a numerical format
and then process them. The REX board has on-board memory that can
store up to 10,000 customized rules. And Ricoh claims the REX
chip will process up to 1.7 million rules per second.
 
Price: $1500.
 
Contact: Ricoh Corp., 5 Dedrick Place, West Caldwell, NJ 07006,
(201) 882-2000.
 
                         --- Stan Miastkowski and Roger K. Adams
 
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