THE AUTOMATED VISUAL INSPECTION (SYNTACTIC REPRESENTATION) SYSTEMS INVOLVES ACQUISITION FROM PRODUCTION OF RULES ABOUT SPECIFICATIONS, COMPONENTS TO INSPECT, AND THE STRUCTURE OF THE IMAGE. THESE RULES, OBTAINED DIRECTLY FROM COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN (CAD) FILES AND INTERACTION OF THE OPERATOR WITH THE IMAGE, ARE STORED IN A KNOWLEDGE BASE WHICH IS USED BY A GENERAL-PURPOSE PARSER TO EVALUATE SETS OF IMAGE PRIMITIVES PRODUCED FROM MICROSCOPIC IMAGES OF VLSI CIRCUIT COMPONENTS. THE PARSER FLAGS POSSIBLE DEFECTS TO BE VERIFIED BY THE INSPECTOR. NEW RULES CAN BE ADDED TO THE KNOWLEDGE BASE AT ANY TIME. THE FACILITY IS MAGNIFICATION AND ROTATION INDEPENDENT. IMPROVED SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING PROCESSES, SHORTENED DEVELOPMENT TIME FOR NEW PROCESSES AND TECHNIQUES, AND LOWER COST OF HIGHER INSPECTION QUALITY ARE EXPECTED TO RESULT FROM THE PROTOTYPE DEVELOPMENT.