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The impact of hardware on database systems

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Database Systems of the 90s (IBM 1990)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 466))

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Abstract

Relational database management systems translate queries posed in a non-procedural language into an efficiently executable plan. The plan consists of primitive database operators that use underlying database management system facilities or exploit the capabilities of the underlying operating system and hardware platform. The high level of the user's queries provides a substantial opportunity for hardware to increase the response time or throughput capacity of the DBMS. Such speedup can be derived from special devices for specific functions, such as sorting, or from entirely new architectures that apply more MIPS to the same data, such as database machines.

Besides these opportunities, relational databases can utilize hardware support in providing new capabilities for their end users. Examples include the use of fiber optics for fast communication in distributed database management, or vector processing facilities attached to general purpose processors for supporting additional datatypes and operations for engineering.

There is another type of hardware impact on databases. This is the area of input/output (I/O), where specialized hardware provides either the source or target of the database data and operations. In this category are disk arrays, used for high bandwidth data storage and retrieval, or highly parallel data access. Less frequently mentioned are sensor-based input or realtime control output (e.g. robots).

In this paper, we will discuss all three categories of hardware support: hardware that speeds up response time or throughput, hardware that enables the database to offer new functions efficiently, and I/O hardware that affects the kind of functions a database can offer. Throughout this discussion, we will restrict our focus to relational databases, but of course the discussion pertains to some areas of hierarchical, network, and object oriented databases as well.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IBM Almaden Research Center, 650 Harry Road, 95120, San Jose, CA

    Patricia G. Selinger

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  1. Patricia G. Selinger
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Albrecht Blaser

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© 1990 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Selinger, P.G. (1990). The impact of hardware on database systems. In: Blaser, A. (eds) Database Systems of the 90s. IBM 1990. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 466. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-53397-4_42

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-53397-4_42

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-53397-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-46835-6

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