MAN-MACHINE INTERACTION

SUMMARY This paper describes some of the difficulties in maintaining large computer systems and considers how machine perception techniques can be applied to the problem. A program called the'engineer's assistant' is described as a step in the right direction. Elaborations are made on the meaning of'the right direction', and an experimental implementation of some of these ideas is described. INTRODUCTION A large computer system is usually maintained by a team of engineers. Inevitably these tend to be of different abilities, and some of them become more knowledgeable and therefore more proficient than others in specific areas of the machine. Although computer'down time' has become more expensive by an order of magnitude on present large systems compared to the last generation, the engineers are not mending faults an order of magnitude faster.