Patent ID: 6415375
Filing Date: 2002-07-02
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
An information storage system for computers, comprising:a multitude of blocks of fixed length for storing a multitude of records, each having a unique key (a key that does not duplicate the key value of another record, hereafter called the â€œprimary keyâ€ ), having zero or one or more non-unique keys (keys that may duplicate the key values of different records, hereafter called â€œalternate keysâ€ ), and that are stored in said blocks in the order of their respective primary keys; structure such that said blocks consist of primary blocks and overflow blocks, said records to be stored first of all in said primary blocks; a facility for allocating an overflow block in the event an inserted record can not be stored in a primary block and for allocating further overflow blocks in the event an inserted record can not be stored in a single overflow block, the record then to be stored serially across said overflow blocks; a facility for allocating a new primary block in the event an added record can not be stored in the final primary block, the record then to be stored in said new primary block; a location table, used to manage the locations of said primary blocks such that blocks may be positioned with no restriction whatsoever on their physical locations; a facility to create blocks as they become required until physical data storage area is full such that each block need not be created in advance; a facility to partition files consisting of multiple record insertions after multiple specified primary keys into multiple sub-ranges at the location of the file's insertion, this operation treated as the addition rather than the insertion of records, thus preventing the generation of overflow records; and providing retention of said primary and overflow blocks partitioned across multiple computers.