Abstract: An object-oriented system comprises concept and instance objects allocated to a plurality of processors to form a network. Each of the processors comprises a transmission-reception portion for transmitting and receiving messages, an object control portion for managing concept and instance objects, an inheritance retrieval portion for recording and retrieving information inherited from upper concept objects, a message pattern retrieval portion for retrieving message patterns, a message procedure storage portion for storing procedures corresponding to the message patterns, and an instance object storage portion for storing instance variables that hold internal states of the instance objects.

Abstract: An inference processing system comprises a plurality of processors assigned for nodes of a semantic network respectively to carry out parallel processing. Each of the processors stores tables and linking information. The tables are made by arranging rules and prepared for goals respectively. Each table contains the names of links to follow when a certain goal is given and markers for specifying the kinds of the links. In the table, the link names and markers are set as outputs with respect to the given goal as an input. The linking information contains information of links connected to a node for which a corresponding one of the processors is assigned. When the goal and a marker are inputted to any one of the processors, the processor finds an output marker and output links in the tables and linking information and outputs the output marker to the output links, thus achieving an inference process.

Abstract: A semantic network machine is applied to an artificial intelligence computer for performing inferential retrieval with respect to a knowledge base. A main associative memory stores the knowledge base consisting of knowledge data arranged to form a semantic network. Each knowledge data consists of a set of an object, an attribute, and a value. A sub associative memory is connected in parallel with the main memory and stores specific knowledge data including "is-a" attributes of the knowledge data. In an inferential retrieval mode, when a question associated with a given object is input, an initial retrieval condition for retrieving, from the knowledge base, knowledge data necessary for answering the question is defined.