Configuration with R1/XCon (1978)

• Knowledge domain: Configuring VAX computers, to customers' specifications.
• Input: Required characteristics of the computer system.
• Output: Specification for the computer system.
• Inference engine: Forward chaining: the output specification was assembled in working memory.
• Knowledge representation: Production rules.
• DEC attempted to write a conventional program to do this task, with no success, then invited McDermott to write an AI system to do it. McDermott wrote R1/XCON. By 1986, it had processed 80,000 orders, and achieved 95-98% accuracy. It was reckoned to be saving DEC $25M a year.
• R1/XCON suffered from the shortcomings of simple production-rule-based systems.Expensive rewriting was needed to restore the operation of the system
• What other configuration tasks could RBSs be used for?