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Course Objectives

Prerequisites

Approach

Typical Text

Course Outline

Course Objectives
Knowledge of the design and implementation of data physically placed on secondary storage. Practical knowledge of database history, practice, models, systems and design.

Prerequisites
COMP 410, COMP 411, MATH 381 are hard prerequisites.

Approach
Hands on experience with a Database Management System (DBMS). Overview of traditional file processing issues and methods.

Typical Text
Elmasri and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems (2nd ed.), Benjamin Cummings, 1994.

Course Outline

History and Overview

• Price/performance considerations (2)
• Access characteristics of tapes, disks
• Traditional methods:
  • Pure sequential
  • Pure transaction
  • Mixed

Logical view of data (1)


• Entity Relationship model as an analysis tool
• Primary and scondary keys

Physical implementation on secondary storage (3)


• Sequential methods, primary index methods
• Secondary index methods, non-key methods
• Examples: hashed, indexed, ISAMS, B-trees,
  • variable length records
• External sort/merge
• Reorganization

DBMS overview (Ingress or equivalent relational system) (3)


• DBMS motivation
• Data descriptions
• Query languages
• Updates
• Multi-user issues

Database Models (4)


• Relational
• Traditional (network and hierarchical)
• Design principles
• Other