ATEX - A DIAGNOSTIC EXPERT SYSTEM EMBEDDED IN AN ATE SYSTEM.

ATEX is an expert system designed to assist a test technician in detecting and isolation faulty modules in a given UUT (unit under test). ATEX consists of two major parts, KB and RT. ATEX. KB generates and maintains the system knowledge base that consists of elements in the theory of electronics and UUT-specific knowledge. The core of ATEX. RT is the inference engine that operates on the knowledge base and the test results, and offers assistance in probabilistic diagnosis assessment and effective management of the testing process including goal-setting, and test evaluation and selection. ATEX is designed to conform to the modern concepts and trends in automatic test equipment (ATE) technology and to be integrated with a conventional ATE environment. It was prototyped in PROLOG; but its operational version is written in C. It can run on either an IBM-PC-based workstation that is interfaced to the ATE microcomputer, or be embedded within the ATE minicomputer.