Representing knowledge with functions and Boolean arrays

Over the past eighteen years a variety of advanced decision support systems have been built with knowledge-based expert system (KBES) components. For the past eight years, a knowledge representation and manipulation (KRM) scheme called FABA (Functions And Boolean Arrays) has been used. It has two basic principles. First, knowledge is viewed as a functional mapping between input and output variables, where the functions are expressed as fact tables or bases and procedure modules. Second, the function network can be represented with Boolean arrays. The basics of FABA, its implementation in APL2, and a simple example of FABA's application in a manufacturing dispatch application for IBM's semiconductor facility in Burlington, Vermont, are described in this paper.