A DISTRIBUTED OBJECT-ORIENTED DATA FACILITY FOR LOCAL MEMORY PARALLEL COMPUTERS

LOCAL MEMORY, PARALLEL PROCESSING COMPUTER SYSTEMS OFFER THE POTENTIAL TO REALIZE PREVIOUSLY UNAVAILABLE LEVELS OF PERFORMANCE AT COSTS FAR LOWER THAN CURRENT UNIPROCESSOR TECHNOLOGY PERMITS. HOWEVER, THE ARCHITECTURES OF THESE PARALLEL SYSTEMS PRESENT DIFFICULT PROBLEMS FOR BOTH DATA ACCESS AND DATA COMMUNICATIONS. THE ARACHNID SYSTEM IS PROPOSED AS A GENERAL SOLUTION TO THESE PROBLEMS. ARACHNID CONSISTS OF AN INTERCONNECTED SERIES OF SERVERS USING OBJECT-ORIENTED DATABASE TECHNOLOGIES TO PROVIDE A HIGH-LEVEL FACILITY WHICH REDUCES THE MEAN TIME REQUIRED TO GAIN ACCESS TO ARBITRARY DATA STRUCTURES IN A DISTRIBUTED SYSTEM. ARACHNID WOULD INTERFACE TO CLIENTS EXECUTIN ON THE HOST AND COULD ALSO PROVIDE ADDITIONAL SERVICES INCLUDING DATA INTEGRITY AND CONCURRENCY CONTROL.