123 research outputs found
New Directions In Database-Systems Research and Development
Prepared for: Chief of Naval Research Arlington, VA 22217In this paper, three new directions in database-systems research and development are indicated. One new direction is the emergence of the multilingual database systems where a single database system can execute many transactions written respectively in different data languages and support many databases structured correspondingly in various data models. Thus, a multi-lingual database system allows the old transactions and existing databases to be migrated to the new system, the user to explore the strong features of the various data languages and data models in the same system, the hardware upgrade to be focused on a single system instead of a heterogeneous collection of database systems, and the database application to cover wider types of transactions and interaction in the same environment. One other new direction is the emphasis of the multi-backend database systems where the database system is configured with a number of microprocessor-based processing units and their disk subsystems. These processing units and disk subsystems are called database backends. The unique characteristics of the backends are that the number of the backends is variable, the system software in all of the backends is identical, and the multiplicity of the backends is proportional to the performance and capacity of the system. Thus, for the first time, a multi-backend database system enables the user to relate the amount of hardware used (i.e., the number of the backends) to the degree of performance gain and capacity growth of the system. The third new direction is the possibility of the multi-host database systems where a single database system can communicate with a variable number and heterogeneous collection of mainframes in several different data languages and allow the mainframes to share the common database store and access. This paper attempts to articulate the background, benefits, requirements and architectures of these new types of database system, namely, the multi-lingua the multi-backend, and the multi-host database systems.DoD STARS Program and from the Office of Naval Research.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited
Economic data bank management in a developing nation
This dissertation describes the results of a research project which was
undertaken at Loughborough University of Technology. The basic objectives of the research project were: (1) to investigate the management elements required for organising the
development of an Economic Data Bank (EDB), with particular emphasis
on the requirements of a developing nation; (2) to investigate the sociological, political and technical implications
associated with organising the development of an EDB in a developing
nation.
A theoretical framework was established for this study. This was dene
after an extensive search and review of literature was performed in the
areas of data and data base management systems, management information
systems, and computer technology in general. [Continues.
Decision Support Systems: Issues and Challenges; Proceedings of an International Task Force Meeting, June 23-25, 1980
This book reports on a three-day meeting on Decision Support Systems held at IIASA. IIASA's interest in sponsoring the meeting was spurred by several factors. First, the term DSS clearly is used in a wide range of contexts; we hoped to develop a deeper understanding of the term and the new field to which it refers. Second, we felt that ongoing work in the DSS field would be enhanced by interaction between professionals who had been working on such systems and people from fields that function as "resource disciplines" for DSS. Finally we wished to bring professionals from several nations together, from the east as well as the west, to share experiences and to assess the viability of the DSS concept in different cultures.
The broad objectives set for this meeting were realized in a number of ways. Virtually all the participants testified that they had gained a deeper understanding of DSS, the role it can play in asssisting managers in organizations, and the need for further development in key areas
Evaluation of Functional Data Models for Database Design and Use
The problems of design, operation, and maintenance of databases using the three most
popular database management systems (Hierarchical, CQDASYL/DBTG, and Relational) are
well known. Users wishing to use these systems have to make conscious and often complex
mappings between the real-world structures and the data structuring options (data models)
provided by these systems. In addition, much of the semantics associated with the data
either does not get expressed at all or gets embedded procedurally in application programs in
an ad-hoc way.
In recent years, a large number of data models (called semantic data models) have been
proposed with the aim of simplifying database design and use. However, the lack of usable
implementations of these proposals has so far inhibited the widespread use of these concepts.
The present work reports on an effort to evaluate and extend one such semantic model by
means of an implementation. It is based on the functional data model proposed earlier by
Shipman[SHIP81). We call this 'Extended Functional Data Model' (EFDM).
EFDM, like Shipman's proposals, is a marriage of three of the advanced modelling concepts
found in both database and artificial intelligence research: the concept of entity to represent
an object in the real world, the concept of type hierarchy among entity types, and the
concept of derived data for modelling procedural knowledge. The functional notation of the
model lends itself to high level data manipulation languages. The data selection in these
languages is expressed simply as function application. Further, the functional approach makes
it possible to incorporate general purpose computation facilities in the data languages without
having to embed them in procedural languages. In addition to providing the usual database
facilities, the implementation also provides a mechanism to specify multiple user views of the
database
Data bases and data base systems related to NASA's aerospace program. A bibliography with indexes
This bibliography lists 1778 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system, 1975 through 1980
Engineering and Scientific Data Management
The application of data management systems to engineering and scientific data is described
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