The aim of this on-going work is to examine both existing OODB systems and database engines to uncover a set of requirements for future engines in order that they might properly support the activities of OODBs.
Add-on data and knowledge based servers have been used to provide hardware support for the operation of database management systems (DBMS). Most such servers provide direct implementations of the Relational algebra operations, typically those associated with data filtering : select, join and project. As such, they are particularly well suited for the support of Relational DBMS. Recently, however, interest in and use of object-oriented DBMS has placed them in the vanguard of new database technology. There is a strong need to consider how well "data engines" meet the requirements of OODBMS and what impact these requirements have on the architecture of these engines. The aims of the one year pilot study are to :
(a) produce a set of requirements made by OODBMS on data engines.
(b) design an initial set of mappings from OODBMS to data engines in order that efficient support for inherent OODB operations and relational-style operations can be provided. A number of these mappings will be prototyped and evaluated as part of the study.
(c) produce an architectural model relating OODBs and data engines and a discussion of the implications of the model.
This group is in contact with the IFS/2 project team at Essex University, led by Prof. Simon Lavington.
Lancaster Personnel:
Funding: