JPH0198051A - Program control system for expert system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To surely prevent such a case where a system stops suddenly with an error due to the shortage of memory capacity and performing reloading/ restarting actions after the end of a main processing program by carrying out the reloading/restarting actions of a main program when the system inquiring frequency reaches a prescribed level. CONSTITUTION:A main processing part 1 of a computer 3 receives an inquiry from a terminal 6 and carries out a main program to infer various rules and knowledge. The results of these inferences are outputted to the terminal 6 as answers to the inquiries. A processing frequency calculation means 1a of the part 1 calculates and holds the inquiring frequency covering the start time point through the present time point. Then a program end means 1b refers to the calculated value of the means 1a and ends a program when said value reaches a prescribed level. At the same time, the main processing program is reloaded on the part 1 from a storing means 4 for main processing program and restarted after the means 1b ends the main program at a main process starting part 2.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a program control method in an expert system.

[Conventional technology]

In an expert system that receives an inquiry from a terminal, executes the main processing program, performs inference using various rules and knowledge, and outputs the inference result to the terminal as a response to the inquiry, the inquiry processing is As the program is executed many times, unusable memory areas may become scattered throughout the program, making it impossible to acquire the required size of memory area on the main storage, and the program may stop due to an error due to insufficient memory capacity. , is known to be more likely to occur than in normal systems. Garbage collection (garbage collection) is used to stop errors due to insufficient memory capacity.
This is unavoidable because it is difficult to remove all garbage even if garbage collection is performed. For this reason, in conventional expert systems, memory capacity is secured with a considerable margin to prevent the system from suddenly stopping due to an error due to insufficient memory capacity during operation.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, there is a limit to increasing the memory capacity, and no matter how large the memory capacity is, the unusable memory area accumulates every time an inquiry is executed, and eventually the memory capacity becomes insufficient. However, it is difficult to reliably prevent the system from suddenly stopping due to a memory shortage.

An object of the present invention is to provide a method for reliably preventing an expert system from suddenly stopping due to an error due to insufficient memory capacity.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention, upon receiving an inquiry from a terminal, performs inference using various rules and knowledge by executing a main processing program, and sends the inference result to the terminal as a response to the inquiry. In the outputting expert system, a counting means for counting the number of processed inquiries, and when the number of processed inquiries counted by the counting means reaches a number predetermined by the system, the operation of the main processing program is terminated. The main processing program includes a program termination unit, and a main processing starting unit that reloads the main processing program from the main processing program storage unit to the main storage device and restarts the main processing program after the operation of the main processing program ends.

[Effect]

When inquiry processing in response to inquiries from a terminal is executed many times, unusable memory area accumulates on the main storage device, but the count value of the counting means that counts the number of inquiries processed When the value reaches a value predetermined by the system, the program termination means terminates the operation of the main processing program, and the main processing starting section reloads the main processing program from the main processing program storage means to the main storage device. be restarted. Since the system is restarted from the initial state in this way, the cumulative value of unusable memory area will not be large enough to cause an error stop, thus preventing the system from suddenly stopping due to an error due to lack of memory capacity. can do.

〔Example〕

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

Referring to FIG. 1, one embodiment of the present invention includes a main processing section 1
and a computer 3 having a main processing starting section 2, a storage means 4 for storing the main processing program, a knowledge base 5 for storing various rules and knowledge, and a terminal 6 connected to the computer 3.
It is made up of.

When the main processing unit 1 receives an inquiry from the terminal 6, it performs inference using various rules and knowledge by executing a main processing program, and outputs the inference result to the terminal 6 as a response to the inquiry. In addition to the same functions as conventional ones, there is a processing number counting means 1a that counts and holds the number of inquiries processed from the start time to the present, and for example, the counted value of the processing number counting means 1a is referred to every time the inquiry processing is completed. A program termination means 1b is provided for terminating the main processing program if the counted value reaches a predetermined number TL. Further, the main processing starting unit 2 is a means for reloading the main processing program from the storage unit 4 to the main processing unit 1 and restarting the main processing program after the operation of the main processing program is terminated by the program terminating unit 1b. 0 or more, the main processing program of the main processing unit 1 is terminated every time the number of inquiries processed in response to inquiries from the terminal 6 reaches a predetermined value.

Since the main processing program will be repeatedly reloaded and restarted, by appropriately determining the number TL that serves as a criterion for the program termination means 1b,
The computer 3 will not suddenly stop due to an error due to insufficient memory capacity.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of a system implementing the present invention, in which the central processing bag rIL10. Main storage device 11. Human output control device 12. Auxiliary storage device 13
．． It is composed of a terminal control device 14 and a terminal 6. The main processing unit 1 in FIG. 1 is realized by a main processing program 16 executed on the central processing unit 10, and the main processing starting unit 2 is also realized by the main processing starting program 1 executed on the central processing unit 10.
7, and these programs are placed on the main storage device 11. Furthermore, a memory area used by the main processing unit 1 to store dynamic data and the like is also secured on the main storage device 11. As described above, as the number of inquiries processed by the main processing unit 1 increases, the unusable memory area on the main storage device 11 increases, but in this embodiment, when the number of inquiries processed reaches a certain number, After the main processing program 16 is terminated, it is reloaded and restarted, so the memory area on the main storage device 11 returns to its initial state, that is, a state in which there is no unusable memory area, and from this state the system restarts. It will start working.

FIG. 3 shows an example of processing executed after the main processing program 16 performs inquiry processing in response to an inquiry from the terminal 6. First, the total number of internal processes TN is +IL (Sl
), TN and the preset value TL are compared32)
, if TN≧TL, the program is ended by itself (S3), and if TN<TL, step S3 is skipped and the process is ended. Main processing startup program 17
When the main processing program 16 ends, the fourth
Start the process shown in the figure and load the main processing program 16 from the auxiliary storage device 13 to the main storage device 11 (5IO)
, starts the main processing program 16 (Sll).

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various other additions and changes are possible.For example, the number of inquiries processed reaches a number predetermined by the system. In this case, instead of immediately terminating the operation of the main processing program unconditionally, it may be possible to terminate the operation of the main processing program after that when there are no inquiries or when the frequency of such inquiries is low.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, in the present invention, when the number of inquiries processed reaches a preset number, the main processing program is reloaded and restarted, so that the system suddenly stops due to an error due to insufficient memory capacity. This can be reliably prevented.

In addition, since the main processing program is immediately reloaded and restarted after it is terminated, there is an advantage that the operation of the expert system can be continued for the first time.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of a system implementing the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a flowchart of an example of processing of the main processing program 16, and FIG. 4 is a flow chart of a processing example of the main processing startup program 17. In the figure, l...Main processing unit la...Process number counting means 1b...Program termination means 2...Main processing starting part 3...Computer 4...Main processing program storage means 5. ...Knowledge base 6...Terminal 16...Main processing program 17...Main processing startup program

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] An expert system that, upon receiving an inquiry from a terminal, performs inference using various rules and knowledge by executing a main processing program, and outputs the inference result to the terminal as a response to the inquiry. , a counting means for counting the number of inquiries processed; and a program termination means for terminating the operation of the main processing program when the number of inquiries processed by the counting means reaches a number predetermined by the system; A program control method in an expert system, comprising: a main processing starting unit that reloads the main processing program from a main processing program storage unit to a main storage device and restarts the main processing program after the operation of the main processing program ends. .