Book Description

The use of a data base management system (DBMS) for storage of, and retrieval from, the many scientific data bases maintained by the National Nuclear Data Center is currently being investigated. It would appear that a commercially available DBMS package would save the Center considerable money and manpower when adding new data files to the library and in the long-term maintenance of current data files. Current DBMS technology and experience with an internal DBMS system suggests an inherent inefficiency in processing large data networks where significant portions are accessed in a sequential manner. Such a file is the Evaluated Nuclear Data File (ENDF/B), which contains many large data tables, each one normally accessed in a sequential manner. After gaining some experience and success in small applications of the commercially available DBMS package, DBMS-10, on the Center's DECsystem-10 computer, it was decided to select a large data base as a test case before making a final decision on the implementation of DBMS-10 for all data bases. The obvious approach is to utilize the DBMS to index a random-access file. In this way one is able to increase the storage and retrieval efficiency at the one-time cost of additional programing effort. 2 figures.