robin@PRC.Unisys.COM (Robin McEntire) (04/10/91)
At Unisys we have developed two quite large, and very real-world applications using prolog. Quintus prolog was used for both applications. One application runs on a Sun workstation so uses Quintus' prolog for the UNIX environment, and the other application runs on a 386 box, so that we are using Quintus' 386 Prolog.
The first application is a configurator called BEACON. It runs on a Sun workstation and uses Quintus prolog for the UNIX environment. This application addresses the same problem as the well-known DEC R1/XCon configurator, but we have taken a very different strategy to solve the problem. BEACON is written in prolog with some C routines used for GUI and uses a locally developed KLONE-style knowledge representation scheme (also written in Prolog). The KR system provides a knowledge base and constraints on
the knowledge base to act as drivers during a configuration session. Approximately 8 of Unisys' large-scale computer's have been modelled using this system.
The second application is a Logistics Inventory Management Assistant (LIMA) written using Quintus' LPA prolog and runs on a 386 platform. LIMA provides a spare parts analyst the ability to review and modify various data histories and projections of future use. LPA provides nice windowing/dialog and graphics capabilities, so we can show the user good-looking bar charts of histories with line graphs of varying styles projecting future utilization from past history data. LIMA then provides a rule-based "b
ack-end" which gives the analyst a suggested solution to solving her/his parts needs.
We're hoping to do a few more, but right now we having nothing in the pipeline.
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Robin McEntire | ARPA: robin@prc.unisys.com
Unisys/Paoli Research Center | UUCP: {psuvax1,cbmvax}!burdvax!robin
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