DIALOG: a distributed processor organization for database machine
AFIPS '80 Proceedings of the May 19-22, 1980, national computer conference
A reconfigurable VLSI architecture for a database processor
AFIPS '83 Proceedings of the May 16-19, 1983, national computer conference
| Hi-index | 14.98 |
THIS issue of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMPUTERS iS devoted to the relatively new field of database machine design. What is a database machine? This question is answered in the context of the traditional approach to the storage, retrieval, and update of information. A collection of data is called a file, and the file is composed of individual records. The records themselves are partitioned into fields. In punched card technology, a file is a deck of cards, a record is a single card (a unit record), and a field is a grouping of adjacent columns to which the designer has assigned some meaning. Simple data processing systems access files in a sequential manner, processing each record in turn. This technique is well suited to the relatively inexpensive card and tape storage media. In the more expensive direct access (drum and disk) storage technologies, the storage media is divided into tracks. Tracks can be addressed directly, which leads to the concept of constructing an index of the file which indicates what data are stored on each track. With direct access storage devices and suitable file organization techniques, data processing programs can search, update, insert, and delete records from a file without processing the entire file in a sequential fashion. Direct access storage devices provide the user with more powerful functions, but these functions must be programmed on the central processor, as the IO interface traditionally communicates control information at a very low level.