Editing Computer-aided maintenance (section)

==Computer aided configuration==
The first computer-aided maintenance software came from [[Digital Equipment Corporation|DEC]] in the 1980s to configure [[VAX]] computers. The software was built using the techniques of [[artificial intelligence]] [[expert system]]s, because the problem of configuring a VAX required expert knowledge. During the research, the software was called ''R1'' and was renamed ''[[XCON]]'' when placed in service.  Fundamentally, ''XCON'' was a rule-based ''configuration [[database]]'' written as an expert system using [[forward chaining]] rules.  As one of the first expert systems to be pressed into commercial service it created high expectations, which did not materialize, as DEC lost commercial pre-eminence. <ref>Virginia E. Barker and Dennis E. O'Connor. Expert systems for configuration at Digital: XCON and beyond. Communications of the ACM, 32(3):298--318, March 1989.</ref>