Hardware implementation of some DBMS functions using SPR

The sorting processor (SPR) is a sort-processor developed to accelerate some of the most frequently used functions of existing data base management systems (DBMS). Realized as an add-in coprocessor board, the SPR provides for a significant performance gain in existing computer architectures. Improved performance is obtained by migration of low-level non-numeric DBMS functions into hardware. The paper presents the basic architecture of a prototype version of the SPR and the hardware support for SORT, SELECT, PROJECT and JOIN operations. A SORT operation is based on the implementation of the improved recursive radix-sort method. Relational data base operations make use of equivalence classes (E-class) generated by the SPR during the basic radix sort or hashing operations. Performance measures given are obtained using the realized prototype SPR.