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From: johnson@uiucdcsp.CS.UIUC.EDU
Newsgroups: net.arch
Subject: Re: VERY LARGE main memories
Message-ID: <3700006@uiucdcsp>
Date: Tue, 26-Aug-86 10:10:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: uiucdcsp.3700006
Posted: Tue Aug 26 10:10:00 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 27-Aug-86 21:22:27 EDT
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Nf-From: uiucdcsp.CS.UIUC.EDU!johnson    Aug 26 09:10:00 1986


I believe that the large memory computers are designed for database
applications.  By putting the entire database in main memory, each
transaction can be run to completion without waiting for the disk.
Thus, much fewer locks are needed.  Concurrency control, deadlock,
etc. all become much simple problems.  Not only is the system faster
because it desn't wait on disks, it is also faster because there is
much less overhead for locking.

While it is true that minicomputers are used for CPUs, I think that
the large memory computers are considered database supercomputers.
They are not meant to be cheap.  Hector Garcia-Molina of Princeton
is one of the main workers in this area.  The first I learned of
this work was an article he wrote in IEEE Trans. on Computers a few
years ago.