DBC Software Requirements for Supporting Network Databases.

This is the second of a series of reports aimed at studying the capabilities of a database computer, known as the DBC, in supporting the three major data models hierarchical, network and relational. In the first report, DBC software requirements for handling hierarchical databases have been presented. This report will be directed towards an investigation of the software requirements for network databases. Relational database systems will be treated in a forthcoming report. The April 1971 report of the CODASYL database Task Group DBTG is chosen as the definitive document of network databases and systems since most commercially available network data base management systems are based on the DBTG report. Even though many of these commercial systems use a syntax that is slightly different from the DBTG specifications, the main concepts have been retained. The network database model studied in this report will be referred to as the DBTG data model. Our emphasis will be on concepts rather than the detailed syntax of the DBTG language specifications. Database computers are a recent addition to the family of computers. With the advent of large databases, there has been a growing awareness of the necessity of a computer architecture that is oriented towards storage, retrieval and manipulation of large quantities of information.