Abstract: The production system is widely used in AI. But it's not practicable in large amount of data because of its bad matching efficiency. Rete algorithm,which speeds up the match efficiency by sharing condition elements and reserving temporary matching results, has become one of the most widely used reasoning algorithms for production systems. I}his paper gave a survey about the principles, state of art and facing problems of Rete algorithm. Many prominent improve- menu of Rete algorithmare were analyzed and compared. Finally, it concludes the challenges that Rete faces and the di- rection of future research.

Key words: Rete algorithm, Production reasoning system, Rule engine