Latin for ''network''.

A specialized [graph] data structure used in expert system shells and production systems, such as [CLIPS] and [Jess].

[[ ... give overview of details ... ]]

[[ Beta/Alpha nodes... node memory ... many object/many match ...]]

[[ ... Original Forgy article in Artificial Intelligence Journal ... ]]

The citation for the original article is:

C. Forgy, ''RETE: A fast algorithm for the many pattern/many object pattern match problem'', Artificial Intelligence, 19 (1982), pp 17-37.

Unfortunately, you can't get this article anywhere on-line. You'll have to trawl your local University Library.
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Here is a paper comparing RETE and TREAT that is available on-line http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/nayak88comparison.html