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.
Here is a paper comparing RETE and TREAT that is available on-line http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/nayak88comparison.html
AH 20 Oct 2005: Also see Wikipedia [L1 ] for a short summary and links to other resources. I found Bob Doorenbos's PhD thesis particularly readable (first external link in the Wikipedia page, or [L2 ]).
In addition, the Drools project has a page [L3 ] dedicated to Rete-related papers, including the original Forgy one (which is available on-line, but for a fee).