FRAME STRUCTURE FOR EXPERT SYSTEM

PURPOSE:To speed up the reference of a slot or a method by storing the pointer of a slot or the method of a high-order frame referred by a frame in a cache. CONSTITUTION:Each of respective frames 11-32 has a slot cache SC and a method cache MC. The caches SC, MC are memories for temporarily storing past slot or method reference results and a referred result is stored as a pointer. Pointers P1, P2...Pn of slots or methods referred in the past are allocated to the SC or MC. At the time of referring the succeeding slot or method, the pointer of the cache is used. Since the reference of the succeeding slot or the like can be found out by the cache in the self-frame, reference to even the high-order frame can be omitted.