Patent ID: 7672747

Claim:
A plasma processing system comprising a program storage medium, said program storage medium having a plurality of agents embodied therein for performing data management in said plasma processing system, said plasma processing system having or being coupled with a plurality of components, said plasma processing system comprising: a plurality of intelligent agents, each intelligent agent of said intelligent agents being configured to interact with a component of said plurality of components, said plurality of intelligent agents including at least a first intelligent agent and a second intelligent agent, said plurality of components including at least a first component and a second component, said first intelligent agent being configured to receive first data from said first component according to a first set of criteria, said first component being configured to collect second data according to a second set of criteria, said second intelligent agent being configured to receive third data from said second component according to a third set of criteria, said second component being configured to collect fourth data according to a fourth set of criteria, said first set of criteria being different from said second set of criteria, said first set of criteria being different from said third set of criteria, said third set of criteria being different from said fourth set of criteria, said first data being a subset of said second data, said third data being a subset of said fourth data; a coordinating agent, said coordinating agent being configured to receive processed data from said plurality of intelligent agents; and a set of provisional agents, said set of provisional agents being configured to perform recipe management, said recipe management including distributing at least part of a recipe to at least one of said plurality of intelligent agents and said coordinating agent, wherein said each intelligent agent of said plurality of intelligent agents includes intelligence for defining configuration requirements for said component of said plurality of components, said configuration requirements including criteria for sending a data file to said each intelligent agent of said plurality of intelligent agents, said criteria being based on said part of said recipe being stored locally at said each intelligent anent of said plurality of intelligent agents.