Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!husc6!amcad!stech!sysop From: sysop@stech.UUCP (Jan Harrington) Newsgroups: comp.databases Subject: Re: Data Base Machines Message-ID: <664@stech.UUCP> Date: 21 Sep 88 10:35:36 GMT References: <21755@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Organization: Scholastech, Inc., Waltham, Mass. Lines: 33 in article <21755@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>, mcclure@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (James Edward McClure) says: > > > Could someone please tell me exactly what a data base machine is and > how if differs from a DBMS (besides being hardware based)? > > Thanks for your help!! There are a number of definitions of a database machine, though the one most commonly used is a computer (usually a mini) set-up as a slave to a host computer which is dedicated to database processing. The database machine usually runs a standard DBMS. The database machine offloads much of the database processing from the host computer. Since database processing is often CPU bound (lot of work is required to translate a users logical requests for data into physical storage locations), having a database machine can speed operations, since the host computer can be doing other things besides address translations. People seem to feel that a database machine increases throughput. Does that help? Jan Harrington, sysop Scholastech Telecommunications UUCP: husc6!amcad!stech!sysop or allegra!stech!sysop BITNET: JHARRY@BENTLEY ******************************************************************************** Miscellaneous profundity: "No matter where you go, there you are." Buckaroo Banzai ********************************************************************************