Categorization-based diagnostic problem solving in the VLSI design domain

The authors introduce a novel architecture for expert systems performing diagnostic problem-solving. The architecture is called categorization-based because problems are solved by relating them to relevant categories of known cases using deep knowledge about the application domain. The effectiveness of the architecture has been validated by an implemented expert system called CHATKB, which does troubleshooting for users of IBM computer-aided VLSI design tools. Experiments showed that CHATKB provides advice of the same quality as human experts. The deep, general knowledge in CHATKB about the VLSI design domain was developed by studying versions of SPICE. The success of CHATKB shows that this knowledge is applicable to quite different VLSI design tools. With the categorization-based architecture, it therefore provides a sound, transferable basis for creating expert systems to help the users of most VLSI design tools