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From: kenny@uiucdcsb.CS.UIUC.EDU
Newsgroups: net.arch
Subject: Re: VERY LARGE main memories
Message-ID: <5600051@uiucdcsb>
Date: Wed, 27-Aug-86 12:21:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: uiucdcsb.5600051
Posted: Wed Aug 27 12:21:00 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 30-Aug-86 10:03:48 EDT
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Nf-From: uiucdcsb.CS.UIUC.EDU!kenny    Aug 27 11:21:00 1986


Ralph (johnson@b.cs.uiuc.edu) is right about the huge-memory machines being
intended to serve as multiprogrammed database machines.  Honeywell is
presently marketing one that can be configured with up to 64M 36-bit words
(a tad over 0.25 GB), and Nippon Electric has one twice that size.  On a
typical configuration with one of those behemoths, 75% or more of the memory
is dedicated to disc caching.  With their present technology, they don't
simplify the locking mechanism (since there still is the possibility that
some given page will be on disc, not in main store) but gain substantial
performance improvements because of the reduced number of collisions.

Kevin Kenny
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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