Table Of ContentDatabase Machines
Modern Trends and Applications
NATO ASI Series
Advanced Science Institutes Series
A series presenting the results of activities sponsored by the NA TO Science
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Series F: Computer and Systems Sciences Vol. 24
Database Machines
Modern Trends and Applications
Edited by
A. K. Saad and A. H. Qureshi
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202/USA
Springer -Verlag
Berlin Heidelberg New York London Paris Tokyo
Published in cooperation with NATO Scientific Affairs Divison
Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Relational Database Machine
Architecture held at Les Arcs, France, July 14-27,1985
ISBN-13: 978-3-642-82939-0 e-ISBN-13: 978-3-642-82937-6
001: 10.1007/978-3-642-82937-6
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data. NATO Advanced Study Institute on Relational Data
base Machine Architecture (1986: Les Arcs, France) Database machines. (NATO ASI series. Series F,
Computer and systems sciences; no. 24) "Published in cooperation with NATO Scientific Affairs Division."
1. Data Base management-Congresses. 2. Electronic digital computers-Congresses. I. Sood, A. K.
II. Qureshi, A. H. III. Series. QA76.9.D3N38 1986 004 86-26302
ISBN-13: 978-3-642-82939-0
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schaft Wort", Munich.
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1986
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 15t edition
Preface
This volume consists of a collection of 28 papers presented at the NATO Advanced Study
Institute held July 14-27, 1985 in the beautiful resort at Les Arcs, France. The director of this
ASI was A. K. Sood and A. H. Qureshi was the co-director.
Since its introduction in the early 1970s the relational data model has been widely accepted.
Several research and industrial efforts are being undertaken to develop special purpose
database machines to implement the relational model. In addition, database machines are
being explored for applications such as image processing and information retrieval. In this
NATO-ASI the lecturers discussed special purpose database machine architectures from the
viewpoint of architecture and hardware detail, software, user needs, theoretical framework and
applications. The papers presented were of two types - regular papers and short papers. The
research in database machines is being conducted in several countries. This fact is under
scored when it is noted that papers in this volume are authored by researchers in France,
Germany, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Turkey, U.K. and U.S.A.
The first paper discusses the experience and applications of users with a commercially
available database machine. In the following eight papers the characteristics of six database
machines are discussed. The second, third and fourth papers deal with the RDBM project at
the Technical University of Braunschweig (Germany). Zeidler discusses the design objectives,
architecture and system design of RDBM. Teich presents the hardware utilized for sorting.
Stiege discusses the RDBM control software and issues in performance modeling and evalua
tion.
Missikoff et al. present DBMAC with particular emphasis on data organization and logical and
physical architectural considerations. Tanaka has suggested the Massive Parallel Database
Computer (MPDC). MPDC architecture and the control schemes to exploit the parallelism of this
computer have been presented. As part of Japan's Fifth Generation Computer project a
relational database machine called Delta is being developed. Sakai et al. discuss Delta with
special focus on the relational database engine, and also discuss an approach to knowledge
base machine development. Next, Inoue and Kawazu present ADAM - a relational database
machine - and discuss issues of data organization, and methods for performing selection and
join operations. Gardarin and Pasquer report on the architecture and design of INRIA's parallel
database machine called SABRE. This MIMD machine is being enhanced by the addition of
rule management functions.
Childs has developed a theoretical framework within which systems development can be
treated. The approach is based on the concept of Function Space Architecture. In the next
paper Van Buer et al. present the results of a comparative study of several relational systems.
In this study similar queries were implemented in different combinations of DBMSs and com
puter systems. Forker and Riechmann's study is based on their experience in integrating the
Braunschweig RDBM and Britton Lee's IDM. They present a database-application protocol to
support communication needs.
An important consideration in database machines is the implementation of the basic opera
tions. Menon presents multiple processor based sorting and join algorithms and compares
these approaches. Gonzalez-Rubio and Rohmer discuss the similarities between artificial intelli-
VI
gence and database systems and show that similar specialized hardware could be utilized in
both environments. Sood et al. discuss two hardware implementations of relational algebra
operations and aggregate functions. Boorman presents a search engine - CAFS-ISP - which is
associated with the disk controllers. The operations, application and performance of CAFS are
discussed.
Quick presents a parallel access cellular system which would have use in fifth generation
systems. The next paper explores bus arbitration issues for an intelligent memory system
employing massive parallelism. McPhee et al. outline some features of current knowledge base
systems and discuss an alternative inpuVoutput architecture. The Flexible Deductive Engine
(FOE) discussed by Van Buer et al. was motivated by the need to provide an experimental
environment to evaluate alternative search strategies in support of logic programming and
knowledge management.
The evolution of database machines has led to an interest in the study of multi-media
databases. Tanaka and Takahashi present a transmedia machine which integrates the func
tions of a database manager and the electronic filing system. Grosky discusses a framework for
integrating image and textual data in the database environment. Ataman analyzes the require
ments for the database created using satellite imaging techniques. Can explores facVdocument
retrieval based on the database machine.
Caviglia et al. suggest a VLSI based array processor for parallel computation of list intersec
tions. METU-GDBMS presented by Dogac supports network, hierarchical and relational data
models. Pseudo-associative memories, built using random access memories and some addi
tional hardware, are discussed by da Silva et al. Reynolds presents an expert database
interface to simplify users' access of the database.
This NATO-ASI was a lively, informative and stimulating experience. It is hoped that the
publication of this volume will aid in providing wider dissemination of the technical content of
the ASI. This ASI was co-sponsored and supported by Ford Motor Company and Wayne State
University. Finally, I would like to acknowledge and thank the lecturers, authors and participants
and the Institute organizing committee members - S. Fujisaki, G. Gardarin, A. H. Qureshi and
B. Yormark.
A.K. Sood
Table of Contents
User Experience with the Britton Lee 10M 500
Robert W Taylor .............. .
RDBM - A Relational Database Machine Based on a Dedicated Multiprocessor System
H. Ch. Zeidler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1E
RDBM - Special Hardware Design for Sorting
W Teich .................. . 4E
RDBM - Software Considerations and Performance Evaluation
Gunther Stiege .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6~
DBMAC: A Parallel Relational Database Machine
M. Missikoff, S. Salza and M. Terranova ..... 8E
Massive Parallel Database Computer MPDC and Its Control Schemes for Massively
Parallel Processing
Y. Tanaka ..................... . 127
Development of Delta as a First Step to a Knowledge Base Machine
Hiroshi Sakai, Kazuhide Iwata, Shigeki Shibayama, Masaaki Abe and Hidenori Itoh 15S
A Relational Database Machine for Very Large Information Retrieval Systems
Ushio Inoue and Seiichi Kawazu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Design and Implementation of Sabre - a Deductive and Parallel Database Machine
Georges Gardarin and Fabrice Pasquer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Introduction to a Mathematical Foundation for Systems Development - a Hypermodel
Syntax for Precision Modeling of Arbitrarily Complex Systems
0. L. Childs ..... ................................... 217
A Comparison of Performance of Similar Queries on Similar Databases on Several
Relational Systems - Hardware and Software
Darrel J. Van Buer, Roy 0. Gates and Eric 0. Lund .................... 257
Some Remarks on the Interface Between Database Machines and Database Applications
in Network Environments
H. J. Forker and C Riechmann . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 269
Sorting and Join Algorithms for Multiprocessor Database Machines
Jai Menon . ............................ . 289
From Databases to Artificial Intelligence: a Hardware Point of View
R. Gonzalez-Rubio and J. Rohmer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Hardware Implementation of Relational Algebra Operations
A. K. Sood, M. Abdelguerfi and W Shu . . . . . . . . . . . 341
VIII
CAFS-ISP - A UK Content Addressable File Store
B. J. Boorman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
Intelligent Cellular Systems: a New Direction for Total System Design
G.E. Quick ............................. . 391
Bus Arbitration Concepts for the Fifth Generation Advance
A. K. Roach and G. E. Quick ............... . 409
IKBS and Intelligent Machine Interfaces
D. McPhee, R. D. Stein and G. E. Quick 421
FOE: A System for Experiments in Interfaces Between Logic Programming and Database
Systems
Darrel J. Van Buer, Dan D. Kogan, Donald P. McKay, Lynette Hirschman,
Richard Whitney and Rebecca Davis ........................... 441
Transmedia Machine
Y. Tanaka and K. Takahashi ..... 459
An Architecture for Integrating Images and Text in a Database Environment
William I. Grosky .............................. . 473
Explosion in the Amount of Satellite Acquired Image Data and the Requirements for New
Image Data Base Systems
Ergin Ataman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 499
Integration of Fact/Document Retrieval Systems Incorporating the Support of a Database
Machine and a Clustering Scheme
Fazli Can .......................................... 503
A VLSI Processor for Concurrent List Intersection
D. D. Caviglia, E. Boveri, C. Mer/o, E. Di Zitti and G. M. Bisio . 519
METU-GDBMS: A Generalized DBMS for the RAP Database Machine
Asuman Dogac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 531
Associative Memory and Database Machines - a Brief Survey and a Design Proposal
Using Hardware Hashing
J. G. D. da Silva, I. Watson and A. C. D. de Figueiredo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 547
The Design of an Adaptive Expert Database Interface
Robert G. Reynolds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557
User Experience with the Britton Lee IDM 500
Robert W. Taylor
Vice President, Engineering
Britton Lee, Inc.
14600 Winchester Blvd.
Los Gatos, CA 95030
1. Introduction
Well over 350 Britton Lee Intelligent Database Machines have been shipped to over
100 customers during the past four years. They are used, in some cases, seven days a
week, 24 hours per day in a number of application areas. During the purchasing cycle,
they are compared against more conventional, "software-only" relational systems. The
customers usually return and purchase more IDMs as their applications proliferate
through their organizations. And they ask for new features. All of this gives an
excellent basis for evaluating database machine approaches, how the customers are using
the IDM, how they compare it to other approaches, and what they want to see next.
This direct experience also gives system developers insight into both hardware and
software architectural issues, which in turn allows conclusions about what has been
learned and where the field is going.
2. Review of the IDM
The basic structure of the IDM has been described in detail elsewhere [1,2,3J. We
will summarize it briefly here for completeness. Like all database machines, the IDM
attaches to one or more "host" computers using some sort of communication network
(figure 1). Software in the host communicates with software in the IDM, with requests
coming from the host as a collection of encoded packets, and collections of responses
(data tuples, status, etc.) flowing back to the host. In addition to offering a database
machine, Britton Lee offers software to run in a variety of host/operating system
combinations. While not the main subject of this paper, the host software capabilities
have turned out to be quite important in practice, as they are part of the database
service that a user expects, and most users are not interested in writing this package
themselves. It has turned out that portability of this software package is a major
consideration as the connect ability of the IDM to a variety of hosts allows usage of the
machine in a variety of environments. Also, it is important to provide a rich set of
application-building tools in the host package, including parsers, pre-compilers, fourth
generation languages, screen formatters, and data conversion utilities. Britton Lee
provides this package in a number of minicomputer, mainframe, and personal computer
environments, and a number of third party capabilities have extended the range of
capabilities using their own host software.
The basic structure of the IDM is shown in figure 2. The hardware is a collection
of boards which plug into a proprietary bus running at 20 MByte/sec. Boards
NATO ASI Series, Vol. F 24
Database Machines. Edited J:iy A. K. Sood and A. H. Qureshi
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1986
