Dedicated object management system benchmarks for software engineering applications

Non-standard database systems have now become available, even as commercial products. They overcome a lot of the deficiencies of relational systems w.r.t. their use in engineering applications like computer-aided design or software engineering. Their rather sophisticated functionality especially concerning the manipulation of complex objects makes them highly attractive for engineering applications. If used as the central database of a rather complex application they could however still become a bottleneck w.r.t. performance. This paper presents a new way to define a special purpose benchmark which enables one to select the fastest database system for a particular software engineering application. It is argued that existing benchmarks are not appropriate to support such a selection, because they neglect important application specific characteristics which significantly influence the database performance

Dedicated Object Management System Benchmarks for Software Engineering Applications

Non-standard database systems become available now, even as commercial products. They overcome a lot of deficiencies of relational systems w.r.t. their use in engineering applications like computer-aided design or software engineering. Their rather sophisticated functionality especially concerning the manipulation of complex objects makes them highly attractive for engineering applications. If being used as the central database of a rather complex application they could however still become a bottleneck w.r.t. performance. This paper presents a new way how to define a special purpose benchmark which enables to select the fastest database system for a particular software engineering application. It is argued that existing benchmarks are not appropriate to support such a selection, because they neglect important application specific characteristics which significantly influence the database performance

The advantages and cost effectiveness of database improvement methods

Relational databases have proved inadequate for supporting new classes of applications, and as a consequence, a number of new approaches have been taken (Blaha 1998), (Harrington 2000). The most salient alternatives are denormalisation and conversion to an object-oriented database (Douglas 1997). Denormalisation can provide better performance but has deficiencies with respect to data modelling. Object-oriented databases can provide increased performance efficiency but without the deficiencies in data modelling (Blaha 2000). Although there have been various benchmark tests reported, none of these tests have compared normalised, object oriented and de-normalised databases. This research shows that a non-normalised database for data containing type code complexity would be normalised in the process of conversion to an objectoriented database. This helps to correct badly organised data and so gives the performance benefits of de-normalisation while improving data modelling. The costs of conversion from relational databases to object oriented databases were also examined. Costs were based on published benchmark tests, a benchmark carried out during this study and case studies. The benchmark tests were based on an engineering database benchmark. Engineering problems such as computer-aided design and manufacturing have much to gain from conversion to object-oriented databases. Costs were calculated for coding and development, and also for operation. It was found that conversion to an object-oriented database was not usually cost effective as many of the performance benefits could be achieved by the far cheaper process of de-normalisation, or by using the performance improving facilities provided by many relational database systems such as indexing or partitioning or by simply upgrading the system hardware. It is concluded therefore that while object oriented databases are a better alternative for databases built from scratch, the conversion of a legacy relational database to an object oriented database is not necessarily cost effective

Assessment of CTF boiling transition and critical heat flux modeling capabilities using the OECD/NRC BFBT and PSBT benchmark databases

The need to refine models for best-estimate calculations, based on good-quality experimental data, has been expressed in many recent meetings in the field of nuclear applications. The modeling needs arising in this respect should not be limited to the currently available macroscopic methods but should be extended to next-generation analysis techniques that focus on more microscopic processes. One of the most valuable databases identified for the thermalhydraulics modeling was developed by the Nuclear Power Engineering Corporation (NUPEC), Japan. From 1987 to 1995, NUPEC performed steady-state and transient critical power and departure from nucleate boiling (DNB) test series based on the equivalent full-size mock-ups. Considering the reliability not only of the measured data, but also other relevant parameters such as the system pressure, inlet sub-cooling and rod surface temperature, these test series supplied the first substantial database for the development of truly mechanistic and consistent models for boiling transition and critical heat flux. Over the last few years the Pennsylvania State University (PSU) under the sponsorship of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has prepared, organized, conducted and summarized the OECD/NRC Full-size Fine-mesh Bundle Tests (BFBT) Benchmark. The international benchmark activities have been conducted in cooperation with the Nuclear Energy Agency/Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (NEA/OECD) and Japan Nuclear Energy Safety (JNES) organization, Japan. Consequently, the JNES has made available the Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) NUPEC database for the purposes of the benchmark. Based on the success of the OECD/NRC BFBT benchmark the JNES has decided to release also the data based on the NUPEC Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) subchannel and bundle tests for another follow-up international benchmark entitled OECD/NRC PWR Subchannel and Bundle Tests (PSBT) benchmark. This paper presents an application of the joint Penn State University/Technical University of Madrid (UPM) version of the well-known subchannel code COBRA-TF, namely CTF, to the critical power and departure from nucleate boiling (DNB) exercises of the OECD/NRC BFBT and PSBT benchmark

A Look Back on the XML Benchmark Project

The XML Benchmark Project was started to provide a framework for evaluating the interplay of XML technologies and Database Management Systems. The benchmark lays emphasis on engineering aspects as well as on performance of the query processor. In this chapter the authors present a quick overview of the benchmark and point at some of the experience they gathered during the design of the benchmark and while running it on a variety of platforms. Since the benchmark was designed early in the evolution of XML, our experiences also reflect how the perception of XML changed during the three years that have passed since we started working on the subject. The chapter comprises an overview of the benchmark as well as discussions of some lessons learned