The design of the Triton nested relational database system

Unique database requirements of applications such as computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided software engineering(CASE), and office information systems(OIC) have driven the development of new data models and database systems based on these new models. In particular, the goal of these new database systems is to exploit the advantages of complex data models that are more efficient (in terms of time and space) than their relational counterparts. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of the Triton nested relational database system, a prototype system based on the nested relational data model. Triton is intended to be used as the backend storage and access component of the aforementioned applications. This paper describes the architecture of the Triton system, and compares the performance of the nested relational model versus the relational model using Triton. In addition, this paper evaluates the EXODUS extensible database toolkit used in the development of the Triton system including key features of the persistent programming language E and the EXODUS storage manager.