Research Summary
A microstorage architecture consists of a microstorage kernel and one
or more storage servers. The storage servers rely on the microstorage
kernel to perform the actual data storage and retrieval. Each storage
server implements a storage model that defines a client's view of the
data in the system, how it is stored, retrieved and manipulated. File
systems, object oriented databases and virtual memory subsystems are
examples of different storage servers that can be constructed on top
of a microstorage kernel. Data in the system may be concurrently
visible via different storage servers. Microstorage architectures
provide a flexible interface to storage and a smooth transition from
traditional file systems to more powerful object oriented storage
models. Existing applications can continue to work correctly, without
any changes, by using a storage server that implements a traditional
file model on top of data objects that are accessible via more
powerful storage models.
We are in the process of implementing a microstorage architecture
called Vista.
Participants
- Dawson Dean
- Richard Zippel
Publications
- D. Dean and R. Zippel, "Vista: A Microstorage Architecture that
Implements File Systems and Object Databases, International Workshop in Object Oriented Operating Systems,
1993.
- D. Dean and R. Zippel, "Implementing File Systems and Object Databases
in a Microstorage Architecture", 1993. Cornell Computer Science TR 93-1393.