CASDAL: CAS SM's DA ta L anguage

CASDAL is a high level data language designed and implemented for the database machine CASSM. The language is used for the manipulation and maintenance of a database using an unnormalized (hierarchically structured) relational data model. It also has facilities to define, modify, and maintain the data model definition. The uniqueness of CASDAL lies in its power to specify complex operations in terms of several new language constructs and its concepts of tagging or marking tuples and of matching values when walking from relation to relation. The language is a result of a top-down design and development effort for a database machine in which high level language constructs are directly supported by the hardware. This paper (1) gives justifications for the use of an unnormalized relational model on which the language is based, (2) presents the CASDAL language constructs with examples, and (3) describes CASSM's architecture and hardware primitives which match closely with the high level language constructs and facilitate the translation process. This paper also attempts to show how the efficiency of the language and the translation task can be achieved and simplified in a system in which the language is the result of a top-down system design and development.

[1]  Stanley Y. W. Su,et al.  A high level data sublanguage for a context-addressed segment-sequential memory , 1974, SIGFIDET '74.

[2]  Jack A. Rudolph.  A production implementation of an associative array processor: STARAN , 1972, AFIPS '72 (Fall, part I).

[3]  Donald D. Chamberlin,et al.  Implementation of a structured English query language , 1975, CACM.

[4]  Stanley Y. W. Su.  Associative Programming in CASSM and its Applications , 1977, VLDB.

[5]  Stanley Y. W. Su,et al.  The architecture of CASSM: A cellular system for non-numeric processing , 1973, ISCA 1973.

[6]  Naftaly H. Minsky.  Rotating storage devices as partially associative memories , 1972, AFIPS '72 (Fall, part I).

[7]  P. Bruce Berra,et al.  A data management system utilizing an associative memory , 1973, AFIPS National Computer Conference.

[8]  C. J. Date.  An architecture for high-level language database extensions , 1976, SIGMOD '76.

[9]  Nan C. Shu,et al.  A high-level data manipulation language for hierarchical data structures , 1976, SIGMOD 1976.

[10]  Hans Christoph Zeidler,et al.  Content addressing in data bases by special peripheral hardware: a proposal called "Suchrechner" , 1975, Computer Architecture.

[11]  G. Jack Lipovski,et al.  The architecture of a context addressed segment-sequential storage , 1972, AFIPS '72 (Fall, part II).

[12]  W. F. King,et al.  Specifying queries as relational expressions , 1974 .

[13]  Kenneth C. Smith,et al.  A virtual memory system for a relational associative processor , 1976, SIGF.

[14]  E. F. Codd,et al.  A data base sublanguage founded on the relational calculus , 1971, SIGFIDET '71.

[15]  Kenneth C. Smith,et al.  RAP: an associative processor for data base management , 1975, AFIPS '75.

[16]  Chyuan Shiun Lin,et al.  The design of a rotating associative memory for relational database applications , 1976, TODS.

[17]  F. B. Thompson,et al.  REL: A Rapidly Extensible Language system , 1969, ACM '69.

[18]  Edward W. Davis.  STARAN parallel processor system software , 1974, AFIPS '74.

[19]  G. Jack Lipovski,et al.  Some implementations of segment sequential functions , 1976, ISCA.

[20]  Robert C. Goldstein,et al.  The MacAIMS data management system , 1970, SIGFIDET '70.

[21]  R. E. Troop,et al.  ASP: a new concept in language and machine organization , 1967, AFIPS '67 (Spring).

[22]  Donald D. Chamberlin,et al.  SEQUEL: A structured English query language , 1974, SIGFIDET '74.

[23]  Michael Hammer,et al.  Specifying queries as relational expressions: the SQUARE data sublanguage , 1975, CACM.

[24]  G. Jack Lipovski,et al.  Retrieval operations and data representations in a context-addressed disc system , 1975 .

[25]  Irving L. Traiger,et al.  System R: relational approach to database management , 1976, TODS.

[26]  Behrooz Parhami.  A highly parallel computing system for information retrieval , 1972, AFIPS '72 (Fall, part II).

[27]  Charles Kellogg,et al.  The converse natural language data management system: current status and plans , 1971, SIGIR '71.

[28]  Richard R. Linde,et al.  Associative processor applications to real-time data management , 1973, AFIPS National Computer Conference.

[29]  E. F. Codd,et al.  Seven Steps to Rendezvous with the Casual User , 1974, IFIP Working Conference Data Base Management.

[30]  Richard Moulder.  An implementation of a data management system on an associative processor , 1973, AFIPS National Computer Conference.