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NBS TECHNICAL NOTE 887

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE/ National Bureau of Standards

ix Data case

Management Systems:

Feature Analysis and

User Experiences
NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS

The National Bureau of Standards' 1 was established by an act of Congress March 3,' 1901.

The Bureau's' overall goal is to strengthen and advance the Nation's science and technology

and facilitate their effective application for public benefit. To this end, the Bureau conducts

research and provides: (1) a basis for the Nation's physical measurement system, (2) scientific and technological services for industry and government, (3) a technical basis for equity in trade,

and (4) technical services to promote public safety. The Bureau consists of the Institute for

Basic Standards, the Institute for Materials Research, the Institute for Applied Technology,

the Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology, and the Office for Information Programs.

THE INSTITUTE FOR BASIC STANDARDS provides the central basis within the United

States of a complete and consistent system of physical measurement; coordinates that system

with measurement systems of other nations; and furnishes essential services leading to accurate and uniform physical measurements throughout the Nation's scientific community, industry,

and commerce. The Institute consists of the Office of Measurement Services, the Office of

Radiation Measurement and the following Center and divisions:

Applied Mathematics — Electricity — Mechanics — Heat — Optical Physics — Center

for Radiation Research: Nuclear Sciences; Applied Radiation — Laboratory Astrophysics 2 — Cryogenics 2 — Electromagnetics 2 — Time and Frequency 2

. THE INSTITUTE FOR MATERIALS RESEARCH conducts materials research leading to improved methods of measurement, standards, and data on the properties of well-characterized

materials needed by industry, commerce, educational institutions, and Government; provides

advisory and research services to other Government agencies; and develops, produces, and

distributes standard reference materials. The Institute consists of the Office of Standard

Reference Materials, the Office of Air and Water Measurement, and the following divisions:

Analytical Chemistry — Polymers — Metallurgy — Inorganic Materials — Reactor

Radiation — Physical Chemistry.

THE INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED TECHNOLOGY provides technical services to promote

the use of available technology and to facilitate technological innovation in industry and

Government; cooperates with public and private organizations leading to the development of

technological standards (including mandatory safety standards), codes and methods of test; and provides technical advice and services to Government agencies upon request. The Institute consists of the following divisions and Centers:

Standards Application and Analysis — Electronic Technology — Center for Consumer

Product Technology: Product Systems Analysis; Product Engineering — Center for Building

Technology: Structures, Materials, and Life Safety; Building Environment; Technical Evaluation and Application — Center for Fire Research: Fir.e Science; Fire Safety Engineering.

* * THE INSTITUTE FOR COMPUTER SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY conducts research

and provides technical services designed to aid Government agencies in improving cost effectiveness in the conduct of their programs through the selection, acquisition, and effective

utilization of automatic data processing equipment; and serves as the principal ^focus within

the executive branch for the development of Federal standards for automatic data processing

equipment, techniques, and computer languages. The Institute consists of the following

divisions: Computer Services — Systems and Software — Computer Systems Engineering — Information Technology.

THE OFFICE FOR INFORMATION PROGRAMS promotes optimum dissemination and

accessibility of scientific information generated within NBS and other agencies of the Federal

Government; promotes the development of the National Standard Reference Data System and

a system of information analysis centers dealing with the broader aspects of the National

Measurement System; provides appropriate services to ensure that the NBS staff has optimum

accessibility to the scientific information of the world. The Office consists of the following

organizational units:

Office of Standard Reference Data — Office of Information Activities — Office of Technical

Publications — Library — Office of International Relations — Office of International

Standards.

* Headquarters and Laboratories at Gaithersburg, Maryland, unless otherwise noted; mailing address

Washington, D.C. 20234.

2 Located at Boulder, Colorado 80302.
KA'flUtfAL BU&ttAU

09 STANSAJEDa

L1BRABT

NOV * 3 1375

-

Six Data Base Management Systems:

Feature Analysis and User Experiences

Elizabeth Fong, Joseph Collica

and Beatrice Marron

Systems and Software Division

Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D.C. 20234

Sponsored in part by:

Federal Aviation Administration

Office of Management Systems

800 Independence Avenue, S.W.

Washington, D.C. 20591

^° F e«

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, Rogers C. B. Morton, Secretary

James A. Baker, III, Under Secrefary

Dr. Betsy Ancker-Johnson, Assisiani Secretary for Science and Technology

NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS, Ernest Ambler, Acting Director

Issued November 1975
National Bureau of Standards Technical Note 887

Nat. Bur. Stand. (U.S.), Tech. Note 887, , 84 pages (Nov. 1975)

CODEN: NBTNAE

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WASHINGTON: 1975

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402

(Order by SD Catalog No. 03.46:887). Price $1.45 (Add 25 percent additional for other than U.S. mailing).
PREFACE

The principal motivation for this report was a request from the

Federal Aviation Administration for NBS assistance in assessing several

data base management systems for their relative applicability and suitability for meeting FAA's Accounting System requirements.

We gratefully acknowledge the excellent cooperation of the systems

vendors and Federal users, both in providing information and validating

the technical content of this report. We especially appreciate the

support of Dr. Dennis Fife, Chief, Computer Science Section, NBS, and

Mr. Robert Link of the Office of Management Systems, FAA.

This report identifies the data base management systems by trade

names as necessary to provide a descriptive characterization of their

features. Inclusion of a system in this report in no case implies a

recommendation or endorsement by the National Bureau of Standards, and

the presentation should not be construed as a certification that any

system provides the indicated capabilities. Similarly the omission of a

system does not imply that its capabilities are less than those of the

included systems. The information presented was obtained primarily from

vendor's documents and has been reviewed by each vendor for accuracy and

clarity; the authors retained final technical judgement on the information included. The report is intended to be informative and instructive

in state of the art assessments , and not an evaluation of the systems

.

Due to the dynamic nature of the systems' features and the user

application environment, the information presented is current only

to April 1975.

111

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

PREFACE iii

ABSTRACT 1

1.0 Introduction .' 1

1 .

1

Background • 1

1.2 Advantages of DBMS 2

1 .

3

Approach 6

1.4 Choice of Six DBMS 7

2.0 Feature Analysis of DBMS 7

2.1 General Description 11

2.2 Computer Environment 16

2.3 Data Structures 22

2.4 Data Definition 25

2.5 Data Maintenance 26

2.6 Query Specification 31

2.7 Output and Report Generation 38

2.8 Security Features 45

2.9 External Linkages 48

3.0 Government User Experience 49

3.1 ADABAS Used at U. S. Navy Fleet Material Support Office . 50

3.2 IMS Used at Naval Materiel Command Support Activity . . 53

3.3 IMS Used at the Federal Reserve Board 55

3.4 INQUIRE Used at the National Library of Medicine (NLM) . . 57

3.5 INQUIRE Used at Law Enforcement Assistance

Administration (LEAA) 60

3.6 Model 204 Used at The Department of State 62

3.7 Model 204 Used at Food and Drug Administration .... 64

3.8 SYSTEM 2000 Used at Department of Agriculture .... 66

3.9 SYSTEM 2000 Used at Environmental Protection Agency . .68

3.10 TOTAL Used at Bureau of Labor Statistics 70

3.11 TOTAL Used at Social Security Administration 73

4.0 Application Considerations of DBMS 75

References 79

FIGURE 1. Number of Users of Six DBMS 3

FIGURE 2. DBMS Functional Components 5

FIGURE 3. Surveys of DBMS Packages 8

FIGURE 4. Summary Matrix of DBMS Application Criteria 78

SIX DATA BASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS : FEATURE ANALYSIS £ USER EXPERIENCES

Elizabeth Fong, Joseph Collica, and Beatrice Marron

This report presents an objective overview of features of six

selected data base management systems (DBMS) and Federal user

experiences with these systems. Application criteria were

developed in order to aid in the evaluation and selection of

DBMS.

The advantages of generalized DBMS over traditional methods

of software system development are discussed. The criteria

for choice of the six systems' features are presented. The

data reported were gathered from two sources : vendors and

users. Vendor information consisted of side-by-side presentation of features of the six DBMS. User experiences reported

are summarized under appropriate headings. This information

is used to derive application criteria for assessing the

usability and operational suitability of DBMS to a variety

of data processing requirements.

The six systems reviewed are: ADABAS, IMS/VS, INQUIRE,

MODEL 204, SYSTEM 2000, and TOTAL.

Keywords : Data base applications ; data base management

systems; selection criteria; software features; system

evaluation; system features; user experiences.

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1 . 1 Background

In the last ten years, the commercial availability of generalized

data base management systems (DBMS) has increased markedly. Despite

a history marked by some significant failures and numerous successes,

the field of DBMS for data processing applications now offers a wide

and growing range of choices. Compounded with this proliferation is

the continuous enhancement and tuning of a package by its vendor to

make it as competitive as possible. Thus, keeping step with the latest

development and state of the art of DBMS is difficult. Yet, in the

evaluation and selection of these DBMS, accurate and up-to-date technical details need to be studied. This report offers relief as a reference

to technical features and operational experiences in the domain of generalized DBMS.

The principal motivation for the NBS study was a request for

assistance from the Federal Aviation Administration" in assessing

"Federal Aviation Administration Interagency Agreement #D0T-FA7WAIi474
several data base management systems for their relative suitability in

meeting FM's accounting system requirements. However, the study has

more general applicability in that it offers application criteria, as

well as feature analysis and user experiences in the evaluation and

selection of DBMS.

1.2 Advantages of DBMS

For the purpose of this study, DBMS are characterized as generalized software , which provides a single flexible facility for accommodating different data files and operations while demanding less program- ming effort than conventional programming languages. DBMS possess the

following general properties:

Software which facilitates operation on data

such as data definition, data storage, data

maintenance, data retrieval, and output.

Software which facilitates reference to

data by name and not by physical location.

A software environment which is not tied to

a particular set of application programs or

files

.

Systems vary considerably with respect to their features. There

are the more elementary systems such as sequential file systems having

single record structures and providing only rudimentary report formatting facilities. In contrast, there are very elaborate systems handling

several files, performing functions in an on-line mode, and having

sophisticated query and report writing capabilities.

In February 1974 Computerworld [l]*reported the growth of DBMS as

follows

"In 1970, there were perhaps 100 users of .DBMS in

the U.S. Today, that number is anywhere from

800 to over 1,000."

Figure 1 shows a dramatic 53% increase during six months in 1974 in the

number of users of the six DBMS included in this report. Thus, the

use of DBMS to control large data bases and provide information to

multiple users has already gained acceptance in the data processing

world. This is partly due to the growing body of massive data collected,

for example, there are over 450 distinct data files that are available

for public sale through National Technical Information Service. Another

reason is the recent hardware advances in storage devices, randomly

accessible disks, laser and bubble memories, etc., which make storage

of large amounts of data feasible.

"Figures in brackets indicate the literature reference at the end

of this paper.

2
No. of Users No. of Users

Name of DBMS as of Feb. 1974 as of Oct. 1974

ADABAS 25* 30**

IMS 400* 500**

INQUIRE 40*** 4g***

MODEL 204 r» A«

T- •% D " " " 21"""

! SYSTEM 2000 60* 70**

TOTAL 400* 750**

* Figure taken from reference [1] ** Figure taken from reference [2] """ Figure quoted from vendor

FIGURE 1 - Number of Users of Six DBMS

Historically, the method of establishing and processing large

amounts of data has been sequential and tape or card oriented. Specialized computer programs were developed primarily in COBOL to store and

retrieve the data. In the last decade, as massive quantitites of data

have proliferated, development has turned to generalized software that

is independent of any particular file formats, allowing users to define

and process a variety of distinct applications.

In the evaluation and selection of a software facility for performing data processing functions, one can immediately think of two extreme

alternatives

(1) Design and implement the system by tailoring it for a specific

application without using any pre-packaged software. For example,

one could write a data base management system in assembly language or

in COBOL.

(2) Utilize a generalized off-the-shelf packaged DBMS and build

any necessary additional functions with application programs.

The first way suggests an initial investment in the data base , system design and implementation. There is a long time lag before the - system is completed for use. Another drawback is that this system is

tailored to a particular application, and may not be flexible and responsive to external changing requirements.

There are many advantages in taking the second alternative. These

are:
. A shorter period of time is required to develop a working

system.

Less manpower is required to install and support an off-theshelf package than writing software from scratch.

The personnel resources can be better utilized in doing

problem-oriented analysis rather than detailed coding of

the system.

With the packaged DBMS approach, there are various levels of supporting effort in the software implementation task.

In general, generalized DBMS software can be regarded as a layer of

software which performs user data services. The functions which a modern

DBMS provides can be identified as follows:

. Accepts a data definition from the user. This is usually

referred to as logical data.

Maps logical data onto the physical storage devices 'by

developing a data organization scheme.

Manages the storage space and the data base.

Performs data manipulation functions such as retrieval of

data for display, retrieval of data for reports, changing

data, adding data, and deleting data.

Provides languages for human interface which usually are

either English-like or host language calls (COBOL, FORTRAN,

or PL/1) with appropriate linkage to the DBMS.

Provides various controls and checks for data validity,

integrity, security and privacy, plus various utility

programs.

Figure 2 depicts the functional components of a generalized DBMS.

A user defines the data to a DBMS via the provided data definition

language . From the raw data and the data definition , the DBMS creates

the data base on a physical mass storage device. The data management

functions are accomplished by software which translates or interprets

user requests for delivering retrieval records or for performing the

necessary maintenance activities for the data base.

All the off-the-shelf DBMS packages do not provide the same set

of functions, and the implementation of functions differs widely in

depth and strength of effectiveness. A careful evaluation and selection

effort is crucial. But without all the facts about each package, an

agency has great difficulty in making a choice. The following chapters

present facts about the features of six DBMS, and a description of how
Data Definition Language Data

i

Data Definition

Language

Processor

>

Data

Management

Requests

Data Retrieval

and

Maintenance

User Language

Processor

Report

Writer

Display of

Retrieved Data

*

FIGURE 2. DBMS Functional Components.
they are being used in real application environments. Due to the dynamic nature of the systems' features and the user application environment, the information presented is current only to April 1975.

There is no simple answer to which DBMS is the best choice because

the advantages and disadvantages need to be considered in light of an

installation's ultimate needs.

1 . 3 Approach

Six modern DBMS were chosen for this study. Features of all six

systems are contrasted side-by-side in Section 2 . The data here on

each of the systems were obtained primarily from system documentation.

In cases where the available documentation did not provide sufficient

data, further information was obtained by telephone from the vendor.

The technical information on each system was validated by the vendor.

Feature analysis of systems, however, covers only half of the picture—the vendor's side. In order to assess the effectiveness of a

system, the user's side must also be considered. The data gathered

from users include answers to the following management-type questions:

Why the specific DBMS package was chosen?

How easy (or difficult) was installation?

How fast did the staff learn to use it?

What level of staff expertise is required

to operate and use the package?

On what computer configuration is the DBMS

installed?

How many application programs are necessary?

How good is the documentation and training

provided?

How responsible is the vendor - in installation,

in full implementation support, in fixing bugs,

in system enhancement?

Rather than taking a broad sample of the user community for each

system via qustionnaires , it was decided to limit the user study to

in-depth personal interviews with two Federal agency users of each system". Each of the interviews is reported in Section 3 with uniform

headings. The information from each installation was reviewed and

There is only one government user of the ADABAS system at this time.
1

validated by the agency. The user experiences and overall impression

of these interview notes reflect some subjective opinion by the agency

as interpreted by NBS.

The system feature analyses and the user experience information

were then applied to derive application criteria for the systems included in this report. These application criteria are presented in

Section 4 and provide a guide for the selection and evaluation of DBMS

based on application considerations.

1.4 Choice of Six DBMS

There are many surveys of DBMS packages (See Figure 3). The number of systems covered ranges from six to as many as 154. Unforunately

.

because of the extremely dynamic and rapidly evolving character of the field

,

most of the surveys that were conducted before 1974 are essentially

outdated.

The criteria for inclusion in the NBS study limit the scope to

those systems that are:

Capable of processing formatted data, that

is, data elements are mostly numerical,

abbreviated text, or encoded values.

Systems that are actively marketed.

Systems that have more than 20 users.

Other criteria- included the additional requirements imposed by

FAA limiting the number of systems. Six packages were selected for

this study: ADABAS, IMS/VS, INQUIRE, MODEL 204, SYSTEM 2000 and TOTAL.

These six systems are believed to be representative of widely recognized and proven products available in the market today.

2.0 FEATURE ANALYSIS OF DBMS

In this section the features of the six DBMS are identified and

contrasted along the same set of characteristics. The feature list

approach for the common description of DBMS is patterned after the

CODASYL Technical Report of May 1971 [4]. The six systems are ADABAS,

IMS/VS*, INQUIRE, MODEL 204, SYSTEM 2000, and TOTAL.

The feature descriptions provided below are presented under nine

headings : general description , computer environment , data structure

,

data definition, data maintenance, query specification, output and

report generation, security features and external linkages. Each

x

*In the case of IMS, several versions existed: IMS/ II, IMS/VS, DL/1

DOS/VS, with IQF (Interactive Query Facility) and GIS (Generalized

Information System). IMS/VS with GIS was chosen here.
No. of Systems

CODASYL

1969 -

1971 -

A Survey of Generalized DBMS [3]

Feature Analysis of Generalized DBMS [4]

9

9

NBS

1972 -

1971 -

1974 -

1973 -

MITRE

1969 -

1973 -

STANFORD

1974 -

DATAPRQ

1974 -

Index of DMS Packages [5] 154

A Survey of Selected Document Processing

Systems [6] 8

A Technical Index of Interactive Information Systems [7] 46

A Study of Six University-Based Information Systems [8] 6

DMS Survey (MIP 329) [9] 10

DMS Catalog (MIP 139) [10] 61

A Feature Analysis of Interactive

Retrieval Systems [11] 11

A Buyer's Guide to Data Base Management

System [2]

FIGURE 3. Surveys of DBMS Packages
heading is further subdivided as necessary to describe the capabilities

and functions appropriate to each heading. This is followed by a table

covering the capabilities of each of the six systems. Every effort was

made to insure correctness of the data; the feature comparison was prepared from documentation obtained in user manuals and contacts with vendor representatives. It was not based on extensive handson experience.

1. General Description - This section provides the proper

identification and background information about each

system. Availability, cost, and type of applications

are all covered.

2. Computer Environment - The hardware and software

configurations are covered in this section. Systems

are built to interface into a particular operating

system, a particular teleprocessing communications

interface, and mass storage with input/output access

method package. An important user consideration is

the mode or modes of operation available for each

system.

3. Data Structure - Generalized data base management

systems can handle at least two levels of data

structures: the logical data structures as seen

by the user of the system, and the physical data

structure which is the mapping of the data into

storage. Each system also supports a set of legal

data types upon which legal operations can be

defined

.

4. Data Definition - The definition of each level

of data in the data structure is covered in this

section. Systems differ in terms of the* amount

of user control.

5. Data Maintenance - The creation of the data base,

the restructuring process and various aspects of

updates are covered in this section. Data creation

provides the initial instance of the data base.

It is the process of reserving storage, establishing

item names and relationships as defined in the data

definition language. Restructuring is the changing

of data definition. Update is the process of

changing the value content of some part of the data

base without changing the structures.

6. Query Specification - Query specification is a

process of selecting and extracting some parts of

the data base for display. There are many degrees

of sophistication in terms of query formulation and

various degrees of user interaction are required.
7. Output and Report Generation - The output is usually

the display of some parts of the data base as a result of query. The display ranges from system-provided

output to user formatting of reports. It is

during this stage that special operations such as

sorting and various kinds of computations may be

applied on the selected data as a built-in process

algorithm.

8. Security Features - Two aspects of security are

addressed: protection of systems against hardware

failure, loss of data bases, etc., and the protection of systems against unauthorized users. The

former is usually considered in terms of the

procedure for backup, with restart recovery mechanisms.

The audit trail mechanisms not only serve as a means

of monitoring the daily transactions but can be

used for data base recovery. The protection against

the unauthorized user is usually via password keys

with various types of authorization assigned to

those keys.

9. External Linkages - To be of general use, it is

necessary to have a facility whereby the generalized

data base management system functions can be

accessed via a procedure language application

program such as COBOL, FORTRAN, or PL/1. The

variety of the external languages provided is

described under the procedural language interface

section.

10
2.1, General Description

2.1.1 System Name, System Originator, Address, Telephone

ADABAS Adaptable Data Base System

Software Ag

11800 Sunrise Valley Drive

Reston, Virginia 22091

(703) 620-9577

IMSAS Information Management System/Virtual System

International Business Machines Corp.

Data Processing Division

112 East Post Road

White Plains, New York 10601

(914) 9^9-1900

INQUIRE INQUIRE System

Infodata Systems, Inc.

5205 Leesburg Pike

Palls Church, Virginia 22041

(703) 578-3430

MODEL 204 MODEL 204

Computer Corporation of America

575 Technology Square

Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139

(617) 491-3670

S2000 System 2000

MRI Systems Corp.

P. 0. Box 9968

Austin, Texas 78760

(512) 258-5171

TOTAL TOTAL System

CINCOM Systems, Inc.

2300 Montana Avenue

Cincinnati, Ohio 45211

(513) 662-2300

11
2.1.2 Availability and Cost of Software. Different software

distribution plans exist. Software to be installed at a customer's

site may be available by purchase or lease. Software may also be

available from time-sharing service centers. The rental and purchase

costs for each of these systems were obtained from the GSA Schedule

where available and from the software vendors . In certain cases , a

discount is- allowed if more than one copy of the system is acquired

within the same government agency.

Availability Cost

ADABAS Software available for purchase

from Software Ag

Lease arrangement from Software

Ag

Time sharing service available from

Planning Research Corp.

$90,000 under GSA Schedule

Six months to five year lease

available . Training $2,000.

$3,375/month under GSA

Schedule

.

IMS/VS Software available for lease only

from IBM

IMS/VS $770/month

IMS/VS DC feature $9 3 5 /month

IMS-2 $6l6/month (OS)

IMS-2 DC $700/month

GIS/VS $800-1, 500/month

INQUIRE Software available for purchase

from INPODATA

Available on a rental basis from

INFODATA.

Time-sharing service available

from Boeing Corp.

$32,000 for basic INQUIRE—

jnder GSA Schedule. Numerous

options available. $1,325 per

nonth for 29 months under GSA

Schedule

.

12
MODEL Software available for purchase

204- from Computer Corporation of

America

Lease arrangement from Computer

Corporation of America

Time-sharing service available

from Informatics, Inc., Fairfield, N.J

($25,600 for nucleus system

Additional modules

increase cost to $82,500

for full system

$2,600/month for full

system

S2000 Software available for permanent

paid up lease from MRI

Various lease arrangements from MRI

(rental with option to buy)

Time-sharing service available on

INFONET, CDC, UCS, COMNET, TYMSHARE,

Planning Research Corp. , Boeing

Computer Services, and others.

$27,000 Basic System under

GSA Schedule. Numerous

options available.

$l,140/month Basic System

under GSA Schedule.

Same as regular GSA INFONET

charges except no discount

and $.03/512 wds/day

TOTAL Software available for purchase

(25 year paid-up lease).

Software available for annual

lease

.

Purchase price $32 ,495 under

GSA Schedule.

$l,050/month minimum package

under GSA Schedule. There

are many different TOTAL

versions

.

13
2.1.3 History of Software. Historical information on the

implementation of the software indicates extent , of development and

field usage . The specific information concerns, the date of first

installation and the name of significant installations

.

History and Dates Significant Installations

ADABAS Software development started by Software

Ag of Darnstadt, W. Germany in 1968.

The first commercial installation in

March 1971. Marketed in U.S. by

Software Ag North America since early

1972.

First National City

Bank of N.Y., Shell Oil,

International Nickel Corp,

UVEAS Software development occurred as a joint

venture between IBM and North American

Rockwell Co. in mid-1960' s. IMS Ver 1

1969, IMS Ver 2 1971, IMS/VS 1973

Federal Reserve

Board

U.S. Navy

INQUIRE The system was developed primarily for

pharmaceutical environment. The first

installation was around 1969

National Library of

Medicine, LEAA, DOT,

CIBA-GEIGY Corp., Exxon

MODEL

204

The software is a proprietary development of CCA. The first installation

was in 1971.

Food and Drug Admin.

Parklawn Computer Center

State Department

Department of Commerce

S2000 System is based, in part, on work

performed at the University of Texas

at Austin on Remote File Management

Systems (RFMS). System first

installed in July 1970.

EPA, Federal Power

Commission, HUD, U.S.

Geological Survey, Chrysler,

Ford Motor Co.

TOTAL TOTAL was designed in early 1968 Social Security Admin .

,

Bureau of Labor Statistics,

Exxon, Ford Motor Co.

14
2.1.4 Type of System and Application. A common characterization of

system types is self-contained versus host-language. Self-contained data

management systems typically provide all essential capabilities for data

creation, data update, data retrieval and report formatting. These selfcontained systems usually provide a generalized retrieval language that can

express fairly complex selection criteria. On the other hand, the hostlanguage data management systems are characterized by embedding system

functions within a host-language program such as COBOL, FORTRAN, PL/1

or assembly language. The user must then rely on the host-language to

program some of the functions.

Even though most of the data management systems are generalized,

meaning there exists a data definition facility whereby a user can define

his own application data, certain features make a system particularly

suited for structured text searching such as in bibliographic information

or legal applications . Some systems were designed to handle formatted

data where data elements have mostly numeric, abbreviated text, or other

encoded values. Examples of such types are inventory control application,

personnel application, etc

.

Type Application

ADABAS Self-contained system Formatted data processing

IM3/VS IMS/VS is a host-language

system. GIS is a self-contained

system. IMS with GIS is both a

host-language and self-contained

system.

it ii ii

INQUIRE Self-contained system it 11 ii

MODEL 204 Self-contained system ii ii ii

S2000 Self-contained system n it it

TOTAL Host-language system

!

it ti ti

15
2.2 Computer Environment

2.2.1 Main Frame, Operating System, Core Requirements and Source

Language. The main frame refers to the particular computing machine for

which the system was designed. The name of the operating system which

supports the DBMS and the main frame is then listed. The core memory

requirements may vary depending on the number of users, and the amount of

input-output buffer space in the system. The amount cited is the minimum

core required. The source language is the programming language in which

the system itself is written.

Minimum i Source

Main Frame Operating System Core Requirements Language

ADABAS IBM 360/370 Series OS or DOS 11 OK bytes IBM 360/370

os/vsi with no assembly

0S/VS2 overlays language

IMS/VS IBM 370 Series OS (IMS-2) 512K bytes data IBM 360/370

OS/VS (IMSAS) base and data

communications

for OS

786K bytes for

data base and

data communications under

VS

assembly

language

INQUIRE IBM 360/370 Series OS, VS 1, VS 2 120K to 200K

bytes'

PL/1 and

assembly

language

MODEL IBM 360/370 Series OS or OSAS 120K bytes of IBM 360/370

204 core

225K bytes with

average buffer

space

30 OK for largest

assembly

language

system

16
S2000 Unlvac 1100 Series Exec 8, CSTS 3 IK decimal

words

Primarily in

assembly

language plus

high level

CDC 6000 -Series SCOPE, KRONOS 2 OK words

FORTRAN. On

IBM, Assembly

IBM 360/370 Series OS, OS/VS 160K-200K

bytes

language plus

MRI's own

system programming language

TOTAL IBM 360/370 Series DOS, DOS/VS, OS, 4-12K bytes Assembly

OS VS1/VS2 plus buffers language

Honeywell 200, 2000 MSR Mod 1 052000 4-12K bytes

plus buffers

Univac Series 70 054, 059 4-12K bytes

9400, 9700 Series plus buffers

NCR Century Series Bl, B2, B3, B4 15K plus

buffers

CDC 6000 SCOPE, KRONOS 15K plus

buffers

IBM System/3 CCP 9K plus

Model 10 CCP buffers

Model 15

17
2.2.2 Communications, communication establishes the link between

the remote terminal user and the system. For a particular type of terminal,

there is usually a teleprocessing interface program which processes a user's

request and properly transmits the messages to and from the computer system.

If the system is re-entrant (code does not modify itself), then multiple

users can simultaneously be executing the one copy of the program. The data

communication system may also operate in single-thread transaction or multithread mode. Single-thread transaction is the execution of application

programs until all requirements of the transaction have been satisfied and

the end result delivered to the user via the communication system. A multithread capability allows for concurrent execution of application programs.

Terminal Type

Teleprocessing

Interface Program

Re-entrant for

Multiple Users

Teleprocessing

Mode

ADABAS Any compatible

with TP software

Does not offer a TP

system; INTERCOMM,

TASK/MASTER, CICS,

ENVIRON/1, IMS/DC and

TSO have been set up

to interface with it

Yes, except

nucleus module

Multi-

' thread

IMS/VS IBM 1050, 2260

local/remote,

2265, 2740-1 or

,11, 2741, 2770,

2780, 2980, 3270

local/remote, 36OO,

3790, system/3,

. system/7, TWX,

SYSIN, SYSOUT

DC, the data communications feature, a

module which can be

ordered for use with

IMS

YES Multithread

INQUIRE Any compatible

terminal with

TP software

It has its own TP.

Also capable of

interfacing into TSO,

TCAM, and IMS/DC

Partially

re-entrant

SingleThread

18
MODEL 204 TTY up to 300 INTERCOMM, CICS, TSO, Yes, modular Multibaud

IBM 2741 or DATEL

IBM 2265 & 2260 -

WYLBUR/MILTEN, TCAM. re-entrant thread

remote

S2000 TTY 33, 35, TP2000 (optional) The IBM version MultiIBM 2741,

IBM 2260 CRT

teleprocessing

monitor . Other

teleprocessing

monitors such as

ALPHA, HYPER-FASTER,

BEST, INTERCOMM, and

CICS may be used as

interface at additional cost

is re-entrant thread

TOTAL All IBM compati- ENVIRON/1, CICS Yes Multibles plus 3270

local/remote

INTERCOMM, TASK/

MASTER

thread

: and many others

19
2.2.3 Mass Storage and I/O Access. Data Management software usually

relies on other system software support for handling large volumes of data,

This support includes mass storage devices (where the data base resides)

plus the input-output access method packages. These packages are provided

on the operating system of the machine or are separately available.

Mass Storage pevice I/O Access Method Package

ADABAS All removable disk packs are

supported but no tapes

BDAM

IMS/VS 2311 disk VSAM, ISAM

2314 11 OSAM, BSAM

2319 " SAM

2305 "

3 33 „ Magnetic tapes

INQUIRE 3330, 2314, 2311 type disks

2301 drum or 2305 fixed head

storage or equivalent devices

BDAM and ISAM

supported by OS

MODEL 204 3330 disk EXCP

2314 " QSAM for sequenced I/O

2311 " Magnetic tapes

S2000 Disk and magnetic tapes BDAM S BSAM (IBM version)

TOTAL 2311, 2314, 3330, 3340,

NCR disks, Honeywell

disks, CDC disks

_ . ...

BDAM, DAM

20
2.2.4 Mode of Use. DBMS are designed to be operated in batch

mode as well as on-line with interactive capabilities. The available

mode (batch or on-line) might be administratively restricted at a

given time in order to use system resources efficiently.

1 Mode for

Data Definition

Mode for

Data Maintenance

Mode for

Querying

ADABAS Batch On-line or batch un-line or batch

TMS/VS

with GIS

On-line or

batch

On-line or

batch J

On-line or batch

INQUIRE On-line or

batch

On-line or

batch

On-line or batch

MODEL 204 On-line or

batch

On-line or

batch

On-line or batch

S2000 On-line or

batch

On-line or batch with

Immediate access

feature; batch with

host-language

On-line or batch with

immediate access feature;

batch with host-language

TOTAL Batch On-line or

batch

On-line or batch

21
2.3 Data Structures

2.3.1 Data Types. Within each system there is a set of valid data types

which can be defined for any element of a file. Examples are: alpha, alphanumeric, numeric, date or coded (different internal and external representations

for a given data value), etc. The definition of types prescribes certain

legal operations upon the data values for a particular element or item.

Data Types

ADABAS Alphanumeric, alpha, binary, fixed point, floating point,

unpack decimal, pack decimal

ims/vs All data types supported by the hardware alphanumeric,

packed decimal, binary

INQUIRE Alphanumeric, alpha, numeric, packed decimal, unpacked

decimal, coded data and binary

MODEL 204 Alphanumeric, numeric (decimal integers, decimal fractions or

both) text (up to 255 characters per field)

S2000 Names (extraneous blanks removed), text (retains blanks), date

in form of all permutations of mm/dd/yy) , integer, decimal,

and money. All numeric fields stored as packed decimal.

TOTAL All data types supported by the hardware:

decimal, binary.

alphanumeric, packed

22
2.3.-2 Logical Data Structures. Logical data structures are the

composition of the data items in a record as it is viewed by the user

without regard to the way data are stored within the computer. Data

may be defined to be hierarchical or tree-like allowing subelements,

repeating group allowing subelements to occur zero or any number of

times, and variable length text field. Some systems permit network

relationships or free associations of data rather than strict

hierarchical relationships. There is also the ability to interrelate

the data across file and among records by defining associations among

fields in the records

.

Logical Data Structures

ADABAS One level file structure with repeating groups. Variable length

text fields allowed with a limit of 253 bytes per field. One can

define multiple fields up to 191 fields . Multi-level hierarchical

network relationships can be achieved by coupling two files together,

The logical data structure of IMS is based upon segments (repeating

groups). An IMS data base consists of 1 to n records, a record

consists of 1 to n segments. Hierarchical structures with up to

15 segment levels and 255 segment types per logical data base

record. Interrelated tree structures allow a segment to participate in more than one logical data structure. Repeating groups and

variable length text allowed.

INQUIRE With one data base, there is a hierarchy of one level (parentchild) . However, a multi-data base can be defined to have up to 32

levels of hierarchical structure. Repeating groups and variable

length text (up to 32,760 bytes) are allowed.

MODEL 204 One level file structure with repeating groups variable length

text fields allowed with a limit of 255 characters . Records are

related by field values, and the relationships may represent trees,

networks, rings, etc.

S2000 Hierarchical structures of records (called repeating groups)

variable length alphanumeric fields allowed. The maximum

number of levels is 32 hierarchical levels with no restriction

on the number of repeating groups but the total components per

data base may not exceed 1000. The maximum length of the alphanumeric field is 250 characters. There is no limit to the number

of data bases. Data bases may be interrelated, providing full

network structuring.

TOTAL Two types of records are permitted: a single-entry or master

record and a variable-entry record. 2,500 different access points

into a variable entry record and 2,500 different record types

within a variable entry file are also allowed. Inverted list,

hierarchical structures and network relationship are also supported.

Variable length text fields are supported logically.

23
2.3-3 Physical Storage Structures. The individual records are

generally organized into some form of storage structure defined as a

data space. Within this data space records are distributed in accordance

with a defined algorithm. These algorithms dictate the search strategies

for each system. The techniques for the organization of data values may be:

Sequential where data records are arranged in a- serial manner on the

mass storage device.

Indexed Sequential where data records are partitioned into smaller

groups. Each group location is identified by an index, and records

in a particular group are sequentially arranged.

Inverted Structure and Chain List refer to the way keys (searchable

data elements) are maintained. They are like indexed sequential

except the index is the keyed data element. More than one index may be

established.

Random Organization usually refers to the technique of hash-coding the

record value in order to determine the location of the record.

Physical Storage Structures

ADABAS All keyed fields are inverted and a search of the list will

produce an internal storage reference. If non-key fields are

specified, a message will occur.

IMS/VS Two basic physical storage organizations are supported: Hierarchical Sequential, available through HSAM and hTSAM; and Hierarchical Direct, available through HDAM and HIDAM.

INQUIRE Physically three files are maintained: the data file containing

user specified data, the search file containing chained subsets

of data file together, and the index file containing keyed or

inverted data elements. Keyed retrieval goes through the threaded

list of search files which points to the item in the data file.

Non-keyed retrieval scans the data file sequentially. Keyed and

non-keyed data may be intermixed and used for retrieval.

MODEL 204 All keyed fields are inverted and a search of the list will produce

an internal storage reference. Non-keyed fields cannot be used in

retrieval, but can be tested after a record has been retrieved.

S2000 All keyed fields are inverted and searching the list will produce

pointers to the hierarchical structure table to resolve multilevel data base searches. Non-keyed fields can be searched

by entering the "Queued Access Module" and the system performs a

sequential search after first isolating a subset of the data base

through any keyed field specifi-ed.

TOTAL Random organization in the main file and bidirectional hierarchical

structure' for the variable entry files which are accessed from the

main file.

24
2.4 Data Definition

2.4.1 User Definable Fields. Any generalized data management system

provides the user with a data definition "language. The language form may

be highly tabular, card-column oriented, or free form. Data naming, types,

characteristics, and relationships with other data items are usually

indicated at this time. For most systems, key and non-key fields

usually must be indicated. Security restrictions may be indicated at

definition time.

1Jser-definable Data

iefinition

User-definable Keyed

Fields

User-definable

Security Restriction

Data Definition

Language Form

ADABAS Yes Yes Yes, by invoking a

utility program call

One card per

field description

IMS/VS Yes Yes Yes Free form

INQUIRE Yes Yes Yes Form is

provided

MODEL 204 Yes Yes Yes Attribute and

value ( s

)

specification

S2000 Yes Yes Yes Syntax-directed

(free form with

punctuation

symbols as delimiters or

qualifiers)

TOTAL Yes No No List-like

statements

25
2.5 '-Data Maintenance

2.5.1 Data Base Loading and Input Analysis. The data base management

system usually takes the data definition and builds internal tables. At data base loading time, a certain amount of input analysis is provided The input validation may be merely matching of data types or preprogrammed 'range checks and built-in data conversion programs. For certain text-oriented

systems there are some facilities for vocabulary building, and automatic or machine aided context indexing.

Input Media

for Loading

Validation of

Data Types

Preprogrammed.

Range Checks

Data

Conversions

ADABAS Sequentially Yes

organized records

such as tape or cards

Yes Yes, Including

encryption

IMS/VS

I Tape, disc or

cards

Not automatically accomplishedNot automatically accomplished

Not automatically accomplished

INQUIRE Card, tape,

disc, or any

sequential

organization

Yes Not automatically accomplished

Not automatically accomplished

MODEL 204 Tape, disc or

cards

Yes Yes, use stored

user language

requests

Yes, translations

occur via translation table

S2000 Sequentially

organized

records on

tape/disc, or

data preformatted into

"value-string"

form

Yes Yes, if procedural language

program is used

Not automatically accomplished

TOTAL Cards , tape

,

disc

Not automatically accomplished

Not automatically accomplished

Not automatically accomplished

26
2.5.2 Data Base Restructuring Process. Restructuring process is

the modification of data definition, such as adding/deleting a new data

element, adding/deleting another level of hierarchy, adding/deleting a

repeating group field, etc. One way of doing this is to unload the data,

re-define and load again. Utility programs are sometimes furnished by

the system. However, certain systems allow limited restructuring without

an external program. A fully automatic restructuring process is the

capability to modify existing data structure via a language.

Restructuring Process

ADABAS Total automatic restructuring allowed. User may add or delete

single data element via a command, the system will add or delete

the element from the data definition table. Values for each data

are added or deleted using normal update commands.

IMS/VS Restructuring allowed via system utilities and must be invoked

by JCL.

Only field expansions are allowed. Changing structure of field

requires unloading and reloading.

INQUIRE

MODEL 204 User may add or delete data elements, or records. Once assigned,

field types cannot be changed without reloading the file.

S2000 Field types can be changed, repeating groups can be added, and

inverted indexes created. Addition of fields within an existing

group requires a reorganization. New data bases can be added any

time without effects.

TOTAL Automatic restructuring (adding/deleting a new data element,

adding/deleting, another level of hierarchy, and adding/deleting

a repeating group field) . Physical structural changes require

redefinition, unloading, and reloading the affected files

27
2.5-3 Data updates. Updating is the process of adding,

changing or deleting the contents of parts of the data base. Updating

excludes restructuring of the data which requires a modification to the

existing data definition or the logical data structures. Entering of

new data differs in practice, from bulk data loading in terms of volume,

mode, and input medium. For self-contained systems, there is usually

a separate language for doing updates. The language may be somewhat

analogous to interrogation in that some part of the data base. must first

be selected. Once the part is selected", it is updated rather than

displayed. The update values may sometimes be specified as the results

of a computation

.

Update Language Form Update Values Via Comput

ADABAS Analogous to query language Yes

IMS/VS Analogous to query language

for GIS or HOST LANGUAGE CALL

Yes

INQUIRE !! tl II Yes

MODEL 204 Analogous to query language Yes

S2000 Analogous to query language Yes

TOTAL Host language call Yes

1

28
2.5.4 Update Levels. When a condition Is satisfied and an update

action is to be carried out on an entry, then the action may be on

several levels. Updates can take place on the data element level. Items

within a repeating group may be updated, or one update command may trigger

actions applied to all records In the file. These system triggered updates

include adjusting the pointers. If the action Is a delete on a hierarchical

structure, a valid consideration is whether the system automatically deletes

all of the descendants.

Data Element

Level

Item within

Repeating Group

Record

Level System Triggered Updates

ADABAS Yes Yes Yes All pointers adjusted by the

system

IMS/VS Yes Yes Yes All pointers adjusted by the

system

INQUIRE Yes Yes Yes No

MODEL 204 Yes Yes Yes All pointers adjusted by the

system

S2000 Yes Yes Yes Depends on control command,

e.g., REMOVE only removes

data at a single level,

REMOVE TREE removes the data

and the lower level dependents. All pointers adjusted

by the system

TOTAL Yes Yes Yes All pointers adjusted by the

System

29
2.5-5 Other Maintenance Capabilities. Some of the global functions

provided by the data base management system are checking authorization for.

updating and producing a daily update transaction for recovery, monitoring,

or rolling back purposes. If on-line updates are allowed, a relevant

consideration is whether the system locks out retrieval to the data base

while it is being updated. Some of those functions can be imposed by

setting up administration control.

1

Check Authorization

for Updates

Transaction

Logged Facilities

Lockout for

On-line Updating

ADABAS Yes Yes Yes, at record level.

Also, lockout only on

updating functions and

not retrievals

IMS/VS Yes, via terminal

identification and

password

Yes Yes, at segment

occurrence level

INQUIRE Yes Yes Yes, at record level

MODEL 204 Yes Yes Yes, at record level

S2000 Yes Yes, via audit

trial command

Yes, at the command

level for multi-user

update

TOTAL Yes, via user

supplied programs

Yes, via user

supplied programs

Yes, at record level

(up to four file levels)

30
2.6 Query Specification

2.6.1 Overall User-system Interaction and Search Specification. Query

is the selection of data from a data base. Information is usually entered

initially to identify the part of the. data base on which the interrogation

is to be performed. This is followed by a statement of the selection criteria

and a statement of the action such as display or print. The query specification can be quite complex with the simplest case having one selection criterion

and one action. The selection criteria are usually in the form of a Boolean

combination (AND, OR, NOT) of simple conditional expressions. These expressions

are in the form of triplets (data name, relational operator, and value).

The form of the language covers the spectrum: English or English-like

phrasing, system-forced dialogue and almost procedure-oriented programming with

control transfers (labels and GOTO's).

Language Form Conditional Expressions Logical Connections

ADABAS English-like

phrasing

Triplets AND, OR, NOT, BUT

NOT (with nesting)

TMS/VS

with GIS

English-like

phrasing

Triplets AND, OR (with

nesting)

INQUIRE English-like

phrasing

Triplets AND, OR, NOT

LINK (matching parallel

repeating group) (with

nesting)

MODEL

204

English-like

phrasing with

control transfer;

Triplets AND, OR, NOT, NOR

S2000 English-like

phrasing

Triplets AND, OR, NOT

(with nesting)

TOTAL Via Host Languagea

31
2.6.2 Qualifications on Searches. Besides the logically connected

conditions within the query specification, various qualifications may be

imposed to further narrow the search. These are as follows:

Range searching - User may specify upper and lower values and retrieve

data whose value falls within the range.

Presence/Absence - User may retrieve records based on the existence or

non-existence of a data field. In other words, null

value is distinguished from zeros or blanks

.

Condition on Groups - User may specify a conditions on the nth entry within

a 'repeating group, a count of the number of entries within a

group, or satisfaction of a special condition among the

group entries.

String Matching - For alphanumeric data, user may specify a literal string with

some "don't care" characters or a partial string.

Phrase Searching •- Search terms can be multiple words occurring within a

text field.

1 Range

Searching

Present/

Absent

Repeating

Group Cond.

String

Matching

Phrase

Searchir

ADABAS Yes, with

reserved

word THRU

No Yes, thru

positional

subscripting

Yes Yes

IMS/VS

with GIS

Yes Yes Yes , thru

positional

subscripting

Yes No

INQUIRE Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

MODEL 204 Yes Yes No, on nth

entry but

can be tested

for value

Yes Yes

S2000 Yes, with

reserved

word SPAN

Yes

(EXIST/

FAIL)

Yes (HAS, AT) Yes, with

previously

defined

process

No

TOTAL Via host language

32
2.6.3 Aids on Search Formulation. During search formulation, most

data base management systems require the retriever. to know the precise

name of data elements defined for an application, as well as which fields

are keyed elements . However, some "forgiving" features may be built in

to provide flexibility in the specifications of search criteria. These features

include

Phonetics - The system will support a list of same sounding but differently

spelled item values so that if the exact spelling of a search

descriptor is not known, a phonetic match can be searched.

Synonyms - The system will support a synonym table or a controlled vocabulary

so that the retriever may look for a class of semantically

equivalent terms . This feature is useful in a text-oriented

application

.

Display of Data Element Dictionary - The system can display the data element

dictionary if requested. The critical information during search

formulation is the precise spelling of data element names and what

data elements inverted for quick searching.

Natural English -- The system can "understand" a variety of input sentences in

natural English. For example: the system allows reserved

words or noise words such as IS, ELSE, BY, etc., for making the

statements easier to read. Also, some systems permit grammatical

alternatives such as, HAS, HAVING, thus making the statements

easier to read.

33
Phonetics Synonyms

Display of Data

Element Dictionary On-Line

Natural

English

ADABAS Yes No No Yes

IMS/VS

with GIS

No, but a

separate

alphasearch

package

can be

used

No No Yes /

INQUIRE No

Yes, with option

MFL (multifile) and

DECON (data

element control facilities

al

Yes Yes

MODEL 204 Yes

No, but may be

implemented

through invisible fields.

Yes Yes

S2000 No, but "SPAN

ALPHA" searches

can achieve the

same capability

No Yes Yes

TOTAL N.A. M.A. N.A. N.A.

34
2.6.4 Tutorial Features. Many systems provide tutorial features

based on the assumptions that the retriever (user) may not be a programmer:

e.g., information specialist, managers, or clerical personnel. This is

particularly useful in the interactive query and search environment when

the user might have at his disposal the following kinds of facilities:

"HELP" command "HELP" or "EXPLAIN" commands which give assistance to a

user on what options are available to him at various

ooints in a session.

Documentation on-line - The system provides documentation on-line which

display the relevant parts of documentation required by

the user.

Browsing - This feature is especially useful in a bibliographic application

or any retrieval producing a very large text output. Here

the user may selectively browse through the search results

by having an abstract or descriptive portion of the record

displayed

.

NOTE: All of these tutorial features can be achieved via predefined query

or application programs

.

"HELP"

Documentation/

On-Line Browsing

ADABAS No No No

IMS/VS N.A. N.A. N.A.

INQUIRE No No Yes, with MPL (multifile) option

MODEL 204 No No Yes

S2000 No No Yes, with "AT" command

TOTAL N.A. N.A. N.A.

35
2 .6.5 Multi-file Searching. A system may be designed so that for a

single interrogation, data elements defined within a single file or a set

of files may be retrieved. Multi-file searching may be achieved through

a group of retrieval statements rather than a single statement. If the

system operates on a set of files, the set may be coordinated by a common

key-field or a linked pointer.

Multi-file

Searching what Mechanism

ADABAS Yes Two files are coupled by a common linked

pointer field via a utility program. At

retrieval time, a single interrogation

may specify conditions from coupled files

but display the data elements in one file

only.

BYES/VS Yes Via application programs

INQUIRE Yes Piles are linked by any combination of

inverted fields with linkage defined

when the data bases are opened, or as

part of the search statement. Up to

32 data bases can be handled simultaneously

in a single query

MODEL 204 Yes Via a group of retrieval statements.

User specified linking by the data

content in the files

S2000 Yes The "HAS" operator can be used to

logically connect files in one data

base. Retrieval can be from one or

both files

TOTAL Yes Via group of retrieval statements also

linked pointers.

36
2.6.6 Predefined Queries for Future Invocation. Some systems have

the capability to store frequently used queries. These queries may then

be invoked by calling them by name. Implicit or explicit modification

capability through the use of parameters may also be available in some systems

Predefined Queries

ADABAS No

IMS/VS Available In GIS

INQUIRE Yes, there is a macro command system with conditional

logic, prompting and parameters substitution

MODEL 204 Yes, with parameter list substitution capability

S2000 Yes, with parameter list substitution capability

called "user-defined functions", strings, or inline functions

TOTAL Via host language

37
2 . 7 Output and Report Generation

2.7.1 Language Type. Every system provides some sort of output

facilities . The facilities range . from standard output provided by the*

system to sophisticated report writing capabilities. Most systems have

both standard output for use during an interactive retrieval session,

and bulk quantity report production facilities to be run as needed. The

output specification language can be:

Standard Output - User specified WRITE or" PRINT, followed by a list of

data element names and system outputs in its own format.

Select Among Options - 'For some systems the output specification is guided

by responding to a question such as "How many would you

like to see" or "Which media do you want for your output"

Own Code - The user must write a program to specify the output format.

ADABAS

LMS/VS

Standard Output

Yes, with the

DISPLAY command

within ADASCRIPT

Available in GIS

with LIST

command

Select Among Options

No

Available in GIS with

LIMIT command can

specify maximum number

of output lines

desired

Own Code

Yes, with host

language system

Yes, with host

language system

INQUIRE' Yes, name of

field and value

'User can preface the

query with the limitation of the number

of items retrieved

Yes, PL/1 or Assembler

to INQUIRE tables, or

with the host language

MODEL 204 Yes, with

PRINT command

No Yes, can be specified

,in user language and host language

S2000 Yes, with the

PRINT or LIST

command

No, but user can

further refine searches

through "DITTO" and

"SAME" operators

Yes, with procedure

language interface or

with an optional

Report Writer package

TOTAL No No Yes, with host language

38
2.7-2 Media Flexibility. User may have control over the types of

output devices. If the requestor is- using a teletypewriter, the system

usually responds on the same teletypewriter. However, for lengthy output,

the user may specify off-line printing. Some systete provide output

graphic display on special graphics terminals

Off-Line Printing Graphic Display

Other

Special Output

ADABAS Yes No, but can be interfaced

with an existing report

writer

No

IMS/VS Yes No No

INQUIRE Yes Yes Linotron,

tape, photocomposition

and plotting

packages

MODEL 204 Yes No No

S2000 Yes Yes, tape output to Calcomp

or other graphical display

devices

No

TOTAL System dependent

not directly

supported by

TOTAL

No No

39
2.7-3 Arithmetic and Statistical Capabilities. Computations on

retrieved numeric data values are provided by the data management systems

in a variety of forms . These computations are usually built-in system

functions. The most common one are Totals, Averages, Count, Maximum, and

Minimum. Some systems provide statistical functions such as Variance,

Percentage , et c

.

Arithmetic and Statistical Capabilities

ADABAS None available but can be interfaced to an existing

report writer

IMS/VS None available but can be interfaced to GIS, or use

Host language capabilities

INQUIRE All arithmetic operators and ABS, AVG, COUNT, DISTR

(Distribution), MAX, MAXI, MIN, MINI, MOD, NUMBER,

SELECT, SUM, DATE DIFFERENCES, STD, DEV.

MODEL 204 Count, add +, substract -, multiply *, divide / , MOD.

S2000 All arithmetic operators and COUNT, MAX, MEN, SUM, AVE.

SIGMA, TIME, DATE,

TOTAL Host Language capabilities

40
2.7.^ Report Format Specification. Facilities for formatting

reports cover a wide spectrum from complete user control to very little

control. The amount of user control on the following 'functions is

described:

Report Body Formatting - The specification of report blocks both vertically

and horizontally across the paper.

Title and Footing Lines - The specification of title lines and/or footing

lines to be included on each report page.

Column Control - The specification of column headings plus the ability to

display the content of retrieved data in columnar structure with

left/right justification.

Item Level Editing - The specification of "PICTURE" forms to allow for

placement of decimal point, commas, insertion of leading or

trailing characters, and leading zero suppression may also be

specified

.

Line Spacing - The specification of the number of blank lines on a page.

Automatic Page Numbering - Automatic numbering of pages from a specified initial

setting

.

41
CD bO W C

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2.7.5 Sorting. Sorting on the selected, retrieved data is usuallyprovided by some systems usually in the batch mode. Sometimes the sort

function is performed by a utility program external to the data management

system, but operating under the operating system as a library routine.

The specification of a sort usually includes the data element names to

be used as sort keys, the sequence for sorting (ascending-descending)

and the user's choice of collating sequence. The system may also have

some requirements on the number of sort key fields and whether these fields

are keyed or non-keyed.

On-line Sorting Number of

Sort Keys

Ascending/

Descending

User Specified

Collating Sequence

ADABAS Yes 3 fields Ascending

only

No

IMS/VS No Available

in GIS

Yes, both

available

in GIS

No

INQUIRE Yes 60 fields Yes, both No

MODEL

204

Yes Any number

of keyed or

non-keyed

fields

Yes, both Yes, the collating

sequence may be specified as left-adjusted,

string or numerical.

S2000 Yes Any number

of keyed or

non-keyed

fields

Yes

(HIGH/LOW)

No

TOTAL Host Language capabilities

43
2.7.6 Extraction of Data. User may specify conditions such that

retrieval data may form a subset of the original data base. The extracted

data may be for the system's own use or may be output in machine-readable

form for use outside of the ' system. There are certain restrictions on

the format of the extracted data, such as it must be a COBOL file or a

FORTRAN file or OS/ 360 file, etc.

Extraction of Data and Its Format

ADABAS Yes, user can write out the selected data to a tape via a

procedure language (COBOL, FORTRAN, or PL/1) in a specified

format.

IMS/VS Available in GIS or Host Language, GIS allows creation of

up to 99 "Temp" file in a specified format.

INQUIRE Yes, there is an ability to create a temporary data base

which may be searched or used as a link into other data

bases. Can also extract data to any output medium in any

user specified format.

MODEL

204

Yes, user can write out selected data creating a 360/370 file.

S2000 Yes, in 80 column card images in BCD via Immediate Access and

Queue module or through procedural language in any format.

TOTAL Host Language capabilities

44
2.8 Security Features

2.8.1 Protection Level. Most systems permit the user to define

levels of security. These may be on the total data base, on the file

level, or on the data element level. Physical security is also considered

in terms of access to specific terminals which may be in a secure area.

Data Base Level File Level Data Element Level Terminal

ADABAS Yes Yes Yes No

IMS/VS Yes (Security provided to "segment"

level) for IMS

(GIS however goes down to data

element level)

Yes

INQUIRE Yes Yes Yes Yes

MODEL

204

Yes Yes No Yes

S2000 Yes Yes Yes No

TOTAL May be accomplished via Host Language routines

45
2.8.2 Type of Authorization. Security control may be different with

each user. For example, the system needs to distinguish between the user

who has no access rights and the user who has rights to read and modify

the data. Some systems can distinguish between users who are allowed to

update data but not to restructure the data.

Type of Authorization

ADABAS 15 levels of data security may be assigned. User password is

translated to an access-level-number and an update-level-number.

If the data element accessed has a higher level number than the

user's access-level-number then this data element is locked to

that user.

TMS/VS A Program Specification Block (PSB) must be coded for every

program that is written to access a data base. The code will

indicate which segments the program will have access to and

whether he may read, update, insert, delete or all of them.

INQUIRE File level security provided by password system which restricts

users based on the command being processed. Additional levels

of security are incorporated in the security exit, which restricts

access to the files, records and/or fields, based on the following

parameters: password supplied by user; OS Job Name; Terminal ID;

Command/ Subcommand being accessed; Field(s) being accessed;

Record(s) being accessed.

MODEL

20L+

The various types of authorization are: 1) updating data with

requests, 2) updating pre-defined procedures (SEGMENTS) including

editing, defining, and deleting, 3) updating data with SEGMENTS,

4) retrieving data with requests, 5) displaying SEGMENTS,

6) retrieving data with SEGMENTS.

S2000

TOTAL

20 passwords may be assigned, each having its own independent

authorities for R(read), U( update), V( qualification for retrieval),

W (qualification for update). Master password controls data base

restructuring and certain data base management commands, including

password/authori zat i on ma j ntpnanop

.

May be accomplished via Host Language routines.

46
2.8.3 Backup/Recovery/Restart . In terms of protection against system

failure due to physical equipment or software error, most systems provide

some sort of backup, recovery procedure and restart mechanism. These might

be, provision of periodical dump for recovery purposes, transaction logging

for the recovery of data bases, etc.

Backup, Recovery, and Restart Mechanism

ADARAS System has log tape for backup and recovery. System also keeps

transaction on a working data set during a session in case of

system failure. This restart is automatic.

Data recovery and transaction recovery through utilities provided

with the package.

IMS/VS

INQUIRE System recovery achieved by utility program to copy log tape

information on to the data base.

MODEL

204

System has a check point restart capability where physical record

changes are kept in the log file. In addition, an audit trail

provides a listing of all transactions which were made to the

data bases.

S2000 The system has back-up files on tapes. Recovery can be invoked

through basic language or through COBOL, FORTRAN, etc.

TOTAL System has a log tape for back-up and recovery. Restart is

to user. Automated restart facilities are available with

ENVIRON/ 1.

up

47
2.9 External Linkages

2.9.1 Procedural Language Interface. External programming interface

is the ability of a system to provide attachment points for user written

code. Procedure language interface is always provided in a host language

type of data base management system. However, the facilities may also be

available in self-contained systems. The interface usually consists of

embedding high-level calls within a procedure language such as FORTRAN,

COBOL, PL/1 or assembly language. These procedural languages supported

are main tools for writing application programs.

Procedure Language Interface

ADABAS Yes (FORTRAN, COBOL, PL/1, Assembly)

IMS/VS Yes (COBOL, PL/1, Assembly)

INQUIRE Yes (FORTRAN, COBOL, PL/1, Assembly)

These procedural language interfaces are all available in

one package at a price.

MODEL

204

Yes (FORTRAN, COBOL, PL/1, Assembly)

S2000 Yes (FORTRAN, COBOL, PL/1, Assembly)

These are all optionally priced packages.

TOTAL Yes (FORTRAN, COBOL, PL/1, Assembly)

48
3.0 GOVERNMENT USER EXPERIENCE

Personal interviews were conducted with two Federal agency users

of each of the six DBMS described in this report, except for ADABAS.

Only one Federal government user of this system is known at present.

The purpose of these interviews was to assess the effectiveness of each

package from the user's viewpoint. Detail information such as volume

of processing and sizes of data bases are cited only as a guide to

support the overall performance of the DBMS. These figures quoted

are current up to April 1975.

The interviews were oriented around the topics outlined below.

When Installed - The date when the DBMS was installed on the

agency's own computer system. When a time-sharing service

was used, the initial service date is given.

Background - This section provides the information about

the agency's main mission and activities in the data processing context. Considerations as to why a particular

DBMS was chosen are also covered here.

Applications - In cases where several applications are

installed on one DBMS system the general characteristics

of the applications are described together with some

specific information concerning each application.

Computer Environment - The computer main frame and the

operating system environment in which the DBMS resides

are covered. If the system is used on-line, the number

and (sometimes) the types of terminals used are presented

here.

Operation and Use - The information includes the volume

of data in terms of on-line queries , on-line updates

,

batch queries, and batch updates.

Application Data Characteristics - The sizes of the data

bases and the types and structures of data defined for

each application are covered in this section. In some

cases , the names of data elements representative of the

application are given as examples.

Application Program Characteristics - The types of

application programs and the languages used to implement

them are discussed. The manpower requirements and the

skill levels necessary to support the application programs

are also described.

Users - The types of users who perform retrieval and

update operations are covered.

49
Experiences with DBMS - This section covers the effort

required to install the DBMS system. Data definition

and loading , vendor support in terms of . training , fixing

problems, and system enhancement through user group

activities are also covered in this section. A subjective opinion is expressed with regard to the documentation of the DBMS.

Overall Impression - This section covers opinions and

impressions by government users, as interpreted by NBS.

System reliability, recovery procedures, and how the

system responds to changing data structure requirements

are covered. The acceptability of each system is

described in terms of user impressions.

3.1 ADABAS Used at U.S. Navy Fleet Material Support Office

Name of Agency : U.S. Navy Fleet Material Support Office (USNFMSO)

DBMS Package Used: ADABAS — ! -

When Installed : In November 1974 an initial contract

was drawn with Planning Research Corporation (PRO

to use ADABAS on the PRC time-sharing service. Since

January 1975, USNFMSO uses its own terminals to query

its ADABAS application data base via telephone lines.

Background : The U.S. Navy Fleet Material Support Office

provides information about aviation maintenance

activities. It collects and disseminates maintenance

data on aircraft and ship materials.

An evaluation of generalized data base management

systems was done prior to the acquisition of ADABAS.

Other packages considered where IMS, TOTAL, and

SYSTEM 2000. ADABAS was chosen because of its

"blackbox" approach, i.e. , the user never needs

to know "how" or "where" his data is stored.

Adding and deleting data fields can be achieved

without unloading and reloading the data base.

USNFMSO will have a large data base (over 3.3

billion bytes) and data compression is a mandatory

requirement. Also ADABAS is available on the PRC

time- sharing service, so that a prototype operation

could be carried out without acquiring and installing the package at USNFMSO.

Application : At present, USNFMSO has one application

on ADABAS: the Navy Maintenance Data Base'. This

data base consists of information on aircraft

components and maintenance activities (date, manhours worked , parts replaced , etc .

)

50
Computer Environment : ADABAS is installed on PRC's IBM 370/155

with TSO. PRC provides USNFMSO with its own copy of

executable ADABAS which uses about 210K bytes of core.

USNFMSO also owns two mountable disk packs which are

maintained and mounted at PRC. At present there are

six terminals located at Mechanicsburg , Pennsylvania;

it is estimated that this number will increase to about

60 terminals.

Operation and Use : On-line querying is the primary use of

ADABAS at USNFMSO. Typical queries are requests for

counts of items satisfying some Boolean combinations.

Numerical comparision on ranges is common within a

query. The number of queries per day is still unknown

at this time.

No on-line updating is done. Data to be entered or

modified are received monthly and an update run- in

batch is made approximately once a month.

Application Data Characteristics : The Navy Maintenance Data

Base at present has 50 million bytes residing on two

3330 disks at PRC. The Navy will soon be installing

two more 3330 disks. The data base consists of 13

separate files with an average record size of about 100

bytes. The average number of data elements in a file

ranges from 12 to 75 fields. Hierarchical and repeating

groups are used. The data is 65% numeric which is stored

in binary form. The remainder consists of alphanumeric

and coded data which are compressed by ADABAS. ADABAS

reportedly has compressed the data base by 30%.

Application Program Characteristics : Although ADABAS can be

interfaced to a batch report writer (ADAWRITER, also

marketed by Software Ag), USNFMSO does not have it

but is working on an interactive report writer callable

from the ADASCRIPT language. This interactive report

writer is being written in assembly language and will

produce customized reports and perform extensive arithmetic computations. A batch update program is also

being planned. It will be written in COBOL to suit

the existing tape format. No other application programs

are necessary at this time.

Users : The users for on-line querying are mostly upper

level managers or information analysts. ADASCRIPT,

the query language for ADABAS, is used for conditional

retrieval and display. USNFMSO personnel include one

analyst and three software specialists for supporting

application programs development and batch updating

of the data base.

51
Experiences with ADABAS : USNFMSO did not install ADABAS on

its own machine because its IBM 360/65 is not configured

for real time teleprocessing applications. A contract

was negotiated With PRC to use ADABAS through the timesharing service as a feasibility study.

The software specialists, after attending ADABAS' one-week

training course and with some assistance from PRC, were

able to define the data for loading which was done in

three hours. Later refinements to data definitions

(changing from keyed to non-keyed or vice-versa) can

be. done by running an ADABAS utility program. No

unloading and reloading of the data base is necessary.

Vendor support is reported very good. Constant enhancement is being made to ADABAS. For example, a revised

version of ADABAS due July 1975 will increase the

throughput by 50%. The documentation is acceptable.

USNFMSO have found that more information is needed in

the documentation in certain areas but the vendor is

very responsive in helping the users.

Overall Impression : USNFMSO considers ADABAS a very costeffective package. "You get what you paid for."

USNFMSO maintains a large scale data base and data

compression is very important to them. The data

elements needed for search queries are usually

unforeseen; therefore, it is difficult to decide

at data definition time which data elements should

be key fields. In other generalized systems, accessing

a field which is not keyed involves a sequential search,

or prohibits a search; ADABAS maintains an address map

(an "Association") so that search of a non-keyed data

element is limited to a subset of the data base using

the "Association" address. ADABAS data. bases never

need to be reorganized, and very little application

programming is required to operate ADABAS. USNFMSO

feels that they can fully utilize ADABAS without

extensive training or detailed knowledge of the system.

ADASCRIPT is free-form and easy to use, but does not

provide enough of the arithmetic computation capabilities

and report formatting required. (These features are all

available with ADAWRITER. ) However, ADASCRIPT is nonproprietary and USNFMSO finds it very easy to build

its own application programs and interface to ADASCRIPT.

The package is reported to be extremely reliable and

has caused no problems

.

52
3.2 IMS Used at Naval Materiel Command Support Activity

Name of Agency : Naval Materiel Command Support Activity (NMCSA)

DMBS Package Used : IMS

When Installed : Fall 1970.

Background : NMCSA performs logistic type activities for such

functions as personnel, finances, weapons systems analysis,

aircraft maintenance, military construction, and ship alteration management. Batch and teleprocessing capabilities

are required, and the Navy needed a system that could be

installed quickly. The first application of IMS-1 with

IMS/data communication was a small financial system; it

was operational within a few months. NMCSA has since

upgraded to IMS/ II.

Applications : There are about 40 IMS applications at NMCSA.

The largest of these is the Integrated Financial System

which contains information on obligations, commitments,

negotiations and contract monitoring details. The

agency utilizes the IMS multi-file capability to

logically connect several data bases. These include

a general ledger data base, a document history data

base, a suspense data base, an accounts data base,

and a document status data base.

Computer Environment : IMS is operating at NMCSA on an

IBM 360/65 under OS/MVT with IBM 3330 and Itel 7330

disk packs. The IMS nucleus requires 530,000 bytes of

core. All of the available access methods are utilized.

There are 74 communications lines over 120 terminals

located throughout the country, with the majority of

the terminals located in the Washington, D.C. area.

Operation and Use : NMCSA does most of its file updates in

batch mode, although there is an on-line update capability. Update is restricted to a few terminals.

There is slightly more query activity than update activity.

Ad hoc queries are via QL1 (a query language developed by

COMRESS) which runs as an IMS application program. Predefined queries are written in IMS-COBOL. A simple query

takes a few seconds; a complex query can take up to two

minutes. (These performance reports may reflect the

saturation rather than IMS operational efficiency .

)

Application Data Characteristics : There are more than 40

separate physical data bases , logically connected via

IMS. They range in size from 15 million characters to

180 million characters. The Integrated Financial System

53
on-line is estimated to reach 500 million characters.

Textual data, coded information, and numeric data are

all included in this integrated system with 3 to 4

levels of hierarchy.

Application Program Characteristics : IMS requires application programs for such functions as query, data validation, and report writing. At NMCSA, COBOL is the primary

application programming language. Although the IQF

(Interactive Query Facility) query language is available

as a separate IMS module from IBM, NMCSA elected instead

to purchase QL1 from COMRESS. QL1 is written in

assembly language and PL/1.

Extensive requirements for arithmetic computation on

financial data are met by in-house-developed COBOL

programs. Application modules which can be invoked

by transaction code with user-supplied parameters

facilitate preformatted retrieval and display of

reports such as those required by the Navy Comptroller.

Since IMS provides security only to the segment level,

application programs had to be written to perform security

checks at the data element level.

Users : The end users of the Integrated Financial System are

accounting clerks, military personnel, project managers,

and secretaries. In-house training is provided to these

users. A user guide is also available. It was written

by NMCSA programmers/analysts and consists of pre-formatted

transaction calls.

Experience with IMS : There is a good IMS community for trading

information—the IMS SHARE/GUIDE Group. The Washington

area users group meets once a month. Recent vendor

support and documentation are reported to be better

than they were when IMS was first marketed.

Overall Impression : The IMS capability to support multiple

applications in an integrated data base environment, in

both batch and on-line operations, satisfied NMCSA'

s

requirements. The need for extensive in-house application programming and the complexity of IMS are

compensated for by the flexibility in data organization

and administration offered by the system.

54
3 . 3 IMS Used at the Federal Reserve Board

Name of Agency : Federal Reserve Board (FRB)

DBMS Package Used : IMS

When Installed : March 1973

Background : In 1972 the FRB did extensive benchmark testing

of two systems, TOTAL and IMS, on their data base of bank

information. The systems were evaluated against a group

of desired capabilities, and both systems successfully

completed all tests. When relative weighting factors

were applied to the various capabilities , with heavy

weights assigned to flexibility in data base structure

and definition as well as data administration support,

the decision was made to lease IMS from IBM. IMS/DB

(Data Base) was acquired; IMS /DC (Data Communications)

will be installed at FRB in July 1975 to permit terminal

access

.

Applications : The Bank and Statistics Data Base is the largest

IMS application at FRB. It is an integrated system of

several separate physical data bases : current financial

data on bank branches ; historical financial data on bank

branches; and current and historical bank structure information. These data bases are logically connected via

application programs bi-directionally for analysis and

maintenance

.

The FRB is building another application data base at a

higher level in its hierarchical file structure , for

information on bank holding companies. This will be

logically connected to the Bank and Statistics Data Base.

Another application file is the IMS Data Dictionary

which stores data administration information such as

validity and quality edits. This file is terminal

oriented and occupies 3,000 tracks of disk.

Computer Environment : IMS/DB is installed on the FRB IBM

370/168 with 2 megabytes of core under OS with TSO. VS-2

is being installed in March 1975. IMS/DB can be run under

TSO as a batch job.

Operation and Use : File update is mostly in the batch mode from

cards. Bank structure data is updated daily as needed.

Much of the financial data is updated querterly when the

bank reports come into FRB. FRB is planning to do on-line

updating when IMS/DC is installed.

55
There is a heavy volume of retrieval 'operations. There are

35 to 40 terminal users at a time at FRB, with 5 to 10 of

these on IMS. Twenty-five to fifty queries per day are run

on the IMS files. The volume of » data entry is small, but

much data revision is performed.

Application Data Characteristics : The Bank and Statistics Data

Base contains one record for each of the 17,000 banks" and

46,000 bank branches in the Federal Reserve system. The

bank records go back to 1960, and the branch records go

back to over four years. The data now occupy more than one

3330 disk pack. It is projected that two such disk packs

will be required. The data are organized hierarchically.

The root segment on bank structure contains approximately

35 fields. Data elements of banks are characterized by

type, size, location and name. Logical relationships permit access by bank market area. Historical research on

banks , though complicated by bank mergers , is possible with

the integrated data base. The records are a combination of

textual and numeric information. The textual fields are

fixed-length at present, but variable length fields are

planned when VS-2 becomes operational.

Application Program Characteristics : FRB has stringent update

and edit requirements and has written its own application

programs to insure validity and quality checking on the

data bases. These edit functions are stored outside the

programs in the IMS Data Dictionary.

FRB programmers have written extensive application programs

to interface IMS with the users. They have written query

subroutines in ALC for one application. Their predominant

application programming language is COBOL, although they have

also written in PL/1, ALC and FORTRAN. There are two IMS

support programmers and about 20 IMS application programmers.

Recently, the data administration fuction has been separated

from the application programming function.

Users : Querying of the IMS files is done mostly by FRB via

application programs. File maintenance is performed by both

data processing unit personnel and by some end-users.

Experience with IMS : IBM provides good on-site support for IMS.

Three days of formal training were provided initially, but

now IMS training is conducted in-house by FRB personnel.

Documentation is reported to be extremely comprehensive.

Over 150 installations are members of the IMS Users Group

(SHARE/GUIDE). FRB considers this group to be very valuable

in that it facilitates communication between users and it

provides a formal channel for requesting system enhancements.

56
Data base administrators and systems programmers from the

various 'user installations meet regularly, and IBM's IMS

specialists (not, salesmen) are invited to participate.

Recently eleven significant new enhancements recommended

by the Users Group were announced as part of the latest

release of the product.

Overall Impression : The FRB requirements for flexibility in

data base structure and definition are satisfied by IMS.

Although IMS is a very complex product requiring much

application software support, it offers significant capabilities' for data reorganization and redefinition. FRB

considers data flexibility to be as important as the system's

efficiency and resource utilization. Integrated data administration which permits queries on data that are logically

related but physically independent is a capability of IMS

that is heavily utilized by FRB. Changes to data relationships can be achieved via rule redefinition without requiring

major program modification or data re-entry.

3.4 INQUIRE Used at the National Library of Medicine (NLM)

Name of Agency : Office of Computer and Communication Service

National Library of Medicine

DBMS Package Used : INQUIRE

When Installed : November 1972. The package was leased as per

the GSA schedule, and will be fully owned by NLM in

November 1975.

Background : NLM staff had been using TYMSHARE* services for

software development and for data base applications other

than ELHILL, the major NLM bibliographic medical literature

system. It was considered too expensive, to keep these

application data bases on-line via TYMSHARE, so a DBMS was

sought which could be installed on the NLM computer. On-line

file maintenance and on-line Boolean search capabilities were

required. INQUIRE was chosen.

Applications : Currently there are about 15 NLM applications on

INQUIRE. The largest data base, INPROC (in-process) consists

of accounting information for monographic material which is

in the process of being acquired or catalogued. It is the

NLM management tool for its library acquisition function.

Similarly, AVPROC is the in-process file for audio-visual

material

.

"TYMSHARE is a commercial timesharing service.

57
SERLINE (serial records on-line) is a data base of 6,600

journals and contains information on which of the 117

libraries in the NLM network holds which journals. SERLINE

is generated and maintained on INQUIRE which creates an

input file for ELHILL.

EMPMIS (extramural program management information system)

contains grants management data and also several files on

grant information for resource , research , training and

publication. Records are created from grant applications,

and are retained regardless of subsequent acceptance or rejection of the applications.

MEDMIS (Medline network management information system) has

several files which contain accounting, statistical, and

administrative data for each Medlars/Medline user institution. For each institution, such information as training

received, billing agent, addresses, log-on codes, etc. is

included

.

DOCLINE (document retrieval on-line) contains bibliographic

information for inter-library loan activities.

Computer Environment : INQUIRE is installed on NLM's 370/158

under -VS 2, release 2, with TSO. The NLM applications run

with 168k bytes of core. Any teletype-compatible terminal

recognized by TSO can be used. There are approximately 30

terminals, with a total of about 40 users, at NLM. There

also are four communications lines from UCLA Medical School,

Harvard Medical School, National Medical Audiovisual Center

in Atlanta, and the British Lending Library through the

ARPANET.

INQUIRE is not re-entrant. TSO is multiple threaded and

processes many users at one time. At any single INQUIRE

application there may be several accesses from different

users

.

Operation and Use : For the INPROC application INQUIRE is used

approximately 600 hours per month with an average of

seven terminals operational concurrently. In some applications, the volume of file maintenance is high, with on-line

input, but deferred (overnight) file update. Periodic

reports are generated in batch mode and/or on-line with a

great use of pre-stored commands and/or report formats.

Most of the on-line searches are utilized for management

information requirements. While off-line searches are

primarily utilized for report generating.

58
Application Data Characteristics : All the INQUIRE data bases at

NLM are predominantly textual, with little if any coding of

data. More than half of the INQUIRE use is on the INPROC data

base which consists of 27,000 records, and is growing. Each

INPROC record contains title, publisher/dealer, place of publication, requisition number if ordered, date received, etc.

The estimated average record size is 920 bytes, the largest

is 1,524 bytes.

Application Program Characteristics : NLM has built very few

application programs for INQUIRE. PL/1 is the NLM application program language. Examples of application programs are

a front-end conversion program for upper-lower case and

Greek letters, and a post-processor to convert SERLINE output to ELHILL input format.

Users: There are only one full-time and four part-time INQUIRE ~data base administrator/system analysts at NLM. Most of

the users directly use the INQUIRE language and these are

professional librarians, management personnel, and library

technicians

.

Experience with INQUIRE : INQUIRE is easy to load on IBM equipment

through the use of an IBM utility program called IEHMOVE.

The IBM linkage editor is used to combine modules. At

present, NLM keeps at least 5 copies of INQUIRE: basic

INQUIRE on-line, basic INQUIRE in the background, and a

basic INQUIRE in the background not overlayed. Associated

with each of the first two copies is a statistical package

and a high performance sort.

Data base definition is facilitated by a preprinted form.

Data entry may be done on-line or in batch. On-line input

is performed with interactive prompting for all or selected

fields of the record to be added. Validation of the record

is performed as prescribed in the data base definition. In

background mode, the user may add records by executing INQUIRE

itself or a series of programs called the Loader System

(INQUIRE-provided software with the basic package). INQUIRE

additions allow punched cards or TSO data sets that contain

field names and field values. The Loader System allows data

in this same (standard input) format or a "direct load"

format. (A limitation on direct loading is that only the

last field in each record may be of variable length. ) NLM

reports that it takes about two minutes of connect time to

enter a new record with twelve fields with interactive prompting. The INQUIRE response time may be due to the NLM-imposed

priority schedule which favors ELHILL rather than INQUIRE.

Recently, INQUIRE use was restricted to non-peak hours. Use

of a software monitor (Boole & Babbage) and the INQUIRE-provided accounting routines pointed up areas where changes in

59
file definition could improve performance.

Vendor suport, both in correcting problems and in providing

enhancements, is good. There is a users group whereby users

can propose enhancements to INFODATA. Documentation was

reported to be improving. INQUIRE initially provided training and assistance in definition for one application, but now

training is available at an additional cost. System reliability is good.

Overall Impression : NLM's requirement for an in-house DBMS with

on-line maintenance and query is satisfied by INQUIRE which

is relatively inexpensive, easy to install, and requires

little special programming. INQUIRE is built for quick

retrieval. The search technique utilizes three distinct

files: Index File (last address of last key data elements),

Search File (chained addresses of all occurrences of keyed

values) and Data File (actual data values). The chained

method facilitates quick searching but updates are not as

straight forward. Some NLM applications are heavily oriented

towards maintenance, there is general satisfaction because

they do deferred updates.

3.5 INQUIRE Used at , Law Enforcement Assistant Administration (LEAA)

Name of Agency : Law Enforcement Assistant Administration (LEAA)

Department of Justice

DBMS Used : INQUIRE

When Installed : 1972 under a lease agreement.

Background : Under contract, Boeing Computer Services, Inc. did

a study for LEAA to find a DBMS which could satisfy LEAA

.needs for flexible report formatting and file maintenance.

INQUIRE was chosen and leased by LEAA in 1972 for installation by Boeing.

Applications : There are five INQUIRE application files at LEAA,

all concerned with grants management:

1. The Block File contains information on grants of blocks

of money to states by LEAA. There is one record per state

in this file and approximately six years' information, for

a total of about 360 records.

2. The Direct Grants File, contains information on direct

grants to individuals, institutions, etc. The file consists of 5,000 records with about 130 data fields per

record

.

60
3. The Subgrants File , the largest LEAA INQUIRE application,

contains information on grants by the states from LEAA block

money. This file has more than 60,000 records with about

2,500 characters per record.

4. The Application File provides the means for tracking

grant applications through the LEAA grant process from

receipt through acceptance or rejection.

5. The Query File is the record of queries made on the

above four files. It is maintained for management purposes.

Computer Environment : Since the Department of Justice computers

do not have TSO, LEAA has contracted with Boeing Computer

Services , Inc . , in McLean , Virginia to have their own copy

of INQUIRE operating on the Boeing IBM 370/168 under VS-2

with TSO. Private LEAA disks are maintained at Boeing, two

of which are on-line at all times. LEAA accesses INQUIRE

via terminals (Hazeltines, 2741' s, Anderson-Jacobson , etc.)

There is delivery service twice a day for line-printer output.

Operation and Use : Ninety-nine percent of the data coding, input

and maintenance is done by Boeing for LEAA in the batch mode.

On-line update is done at LEAA terminals only for minor data

correction. Ninety-five percent of the file queries are also

done in the batch mode, but queries are always initiated online at LEAA. There are approximately 30 to 40 queries per

day and one grouped update run per day.

Application Data Characteristics : The LEAA grants files contain

much coded informaton for which the INQUIRE decode capability

is utilized. Records can contain repeating groups of coded

information on grant categories and objectives; these codes

are primary search keys. Numeric information on grants is

maintained, as well as project title, dates, status and location information. There is also a textual field? the

project summary, in the direct grants file, which can contain

up to 1,440 characters. This field is searchable sequentially,

but is rarely searched.

Nothing in these files is classified since all the information

is in the public domain. In order to protect the files, passwords are required for access.

Application Programming Characteristics : All application programming Is done by Boeing. There are several pre-editing programs,

written in COBOL, which validate dates, location codes, etc.

The INQUIRE macro facility is extensively used for report

writing. These macros are stored in a Macro Library, and

are invoked with parameters to produce customized reports.

61
Users : LEAA responds to queries from Justice, Congress, and the

public at large. Sometimes a charge is levied for services.

There are four LEAA staff members who query the files, one

data base administrator, and three subject specialists.

Experience with INQUIRE : In accordance with its maintenance contract with LEAA, INFODATA gives assistance in data definition

and loading. For example, it has helped LEAA analyze the

tradeoffs between keyed and sequential access during data

definition. A one-week training course was provided as part

of the original installation contract. Now LEAA staff are

trained in-house. Documentation is -described as complete,

but sometimes difficult to understand. Recently a combined

index to the user manuals was provided by INFODATA in order

to improve access to the manuals.

LEAA now uses the new INQUIRE multi-file capability, and

finds it satisfactory. A relationship between files must

have been established before use of the multi-file capability.

Overall Impression : LEAA's requirement for flexible report generation is satisfied by INQUIRE' s macro, decode and sorting capabilities. Very little special programming has been needed.

Computer system problems are expeditiously handled by Boeing.

INFODATA support on INQUIRE problems is described as very

responsive. File update is considered quite expensive in

terms of computer time. The basic INQUIRE system is easy to

learn, but sophisticated features require extensive experience.

3.6 Model 204 Used at The Department of State

Name of Agency : Department of State

DBMS Package Used : Model 204

When Installed : Leased with purchase option for the State

Department in September 1974 at a cost of $2,070 per

month for 36 months.

Background : The State Department has been involved with data

base applications since 1966. They have developed several

in-house software systems: MYSTIQOL, a sequential access

generalized data base management system; DISPLAY, a report

writer; FOCUS, a data base editor and updater; and IQ,

a batch query language. The State Department needed a data

base management system which has all the features in their

present in-house systems plus additional features, such as

inverted fields, storage compaction, processing speed, and

multi-file capability. Some of the mandatory requirements

specified in an RFP sent out in April 1974 were:

62
Capability of supporting a data base of six billion bytes

A checkpoint capability

. Accessibility to programs written in FORTRAN, COBOL, PL/1

and ALC

Security protection on the file level and also on the

record/field level

A sort capability

A multi-server capability.

Model 204 was chosen as the lowest cost data base system

satisfying all of these requirements.

Application : There are four applications which use Model 204.

1. A file of foreigners given grants to vist the United

States. This is a small file with about 2 3,000

records, consisting of ten data fields per record.

2. A mailing label file of all persons who might receive

mail from the State Department together with the

categories of their interests. This file has 20,000

to 30,000 records with 20 to 30 data fields per record.

3. An experimental personnel file which will essentially

contain personnel and payroll information about every

employee of the State Department. This file will consist of 16,000 records with several hundred data fields.

4. The CERP (Current Economic Report Procedures) file.

This is a small data base.

Computer Environment : Model 204 is operating on an IBM 370/158

under VS2 release 1.7 operating system. It uses less than

20 OK bytes of core. At present, the State Department is

still reviewing a separate teleprocessing interface because

the teleprocessing interface provided by Model 204 does not

support IBM 1050 terminals at the State Department.

Operation and Use : Overall usage consists of more updates than

queries at the present time. The updates, numbering about

200 per day are done in batch mode. On-line updates are

planned for the mailing label file and the personnel file.

At the time, the only on-line activity uses the FOCUS

package as an input editor.

63
Application Data Characteristics : In general, data are fixed

length. Coded data are heavily used. No hierarchical structure is required, but repeating group fields are used.

Application Program Characteristics : Input editing is accomplished

via a COBOL program - FOCUS. Few application programs are

necessary because the Model 204 user language is flexible

enough to do all the required functions.

Users : The users are subject matter specialists who received three

days of training in the user language of Model 204. They perform most of the querying of the data base and report writing.

Updates to the data bases are done by programmer/analysts.

Experience with Model 204: Installation of the system takes 1

to 2 days. Data definition and loading require expertise

with Model 204 because disk allocation space must be specified.

The support from the vendor has been good, including adequate

training for the users. The State Department users say that

Model 204 documentation is quite complete, but could be better

organized

.

Overall Impression : The State Department is pleased with Model

204, claiming that the performance is extremely fast. (A

test was performed retrieving 7,800 records from four files

of 15,000 records each. This was accomplished at approximately six records per second. ) The State Department would

like to see two features added to Model 204. These features

are: (1) direct handling of off-line storage such as tapes,

and (2) a flexible format for data input editing. All the

other features requested by the State Department are provided

by Model 204.

3.7 Model 204 Used at Food and Drug Administration

Name of Agency : Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

DBMS Packages Used : Model 204

When Installed : March 1973.

Background : A request for proposal was issued in January 1973

for a generalized data base management system. Among the

criteria used in system selection were these:

. Off-the-shelf, operational system for IBM 360/370

Support for 60 concurrently operating low speed

remote terminals

Fail-soft error recovery procedures

64
On-line and batch mode capabilities

. Concurrent accessibility of the same file by multiple

users

Ascending and descending sort capability

Three levels of system security

Simple data base creation

End-user oriented with English-like retrieval language

On-line report writing

Data base directly accessible from ANS COBOL programs.

Model 204 was selected as meeting these criteria.

Applications : The FDA installation is a service center providing

computing service to the Public Health Service. At the

present time, there are over thirty different applications

being supported on Model 204. There are application systems

from the Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Administration.

Food and Drug Administration, (Bureau of Foods, Bureau of

Radiological Health, Bureau of Medical Devices), National

Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Health Services

Administration, and the Assistant Secretary of Health. The

systems are mostly administrative in nature, consisting of

small to medium size data bases (averaging 5,000 records of

200 to 300 characters per record). Examples of some of the

files are: the Program Management Information System which

contains information pertaining to all Federally funded drug

programs; the Grants Data System which contains information

about all active grant awards; a Drug Prevention Reporting

Information System which contains an inventory of National

Drug Treatment Programs . There are four personnel files

,

two sample personnel files used for instructional purposes,

one personnel file for demonstration purposes and one file

which maintains an on-line roster of Bureau of Food employees.

Computer Environment : Model 204 (FDA in-house designation of

Model 204 is ADMIR - Administrative Management Information

Retrieval) operates on an IBM 370/158" under OS/MVT. Approximately 450K bytes of core are used, supporting application

files. IBM 2741 type terminals and teletype terminals (300

baud) are used with Model 204' s teleprocessing interface

program in a multi-thread environment whereby application

programs may operate concurrently.

65
Operation and Use : The users of Model 204 operate predominantly

in the on-line mode. There are applications that do on-line

data entry or off-line data entry exclusively, and others that

use a combination of both. Over all applications it is

estimated that twice as many updates as on-line queries are

performed monthly.

Application Data Characteristics : The files contain approximately

75% alphanumeric and 25% numeric data. Data are not hierarchical, but there are multiple field values. Application

files vary in number of fields from very small (10) to very

large (255) and in volume which ranges from 200 to over

10,000 records.

Application Program Characteristics : On large updates or initial

preparation of the data base, COBOL, PL/1 and other procedural

languages are used to edit the data and place it into an

acceptable format. Procedural language can be used with IFAM

(Model 204' s Inverted File Access Method) to update files in

a batch mode.

Users : The users of Model 204 applications are generally non-ADP

specialists. The data bases are defined and created for the

users by the FDA computer service center. The users maintain

their data base and write queries and reports in the Model

204 user language.

Experiences with Model 204 : Computer Corporation of America

installed Model 204 for FDA. Any problems which arose were

quickly corrected by the vendor. The documentation provided

with the system included the source code in BAL. The documentation at first was not comprehensive but is improving.

In two years of operation there have been very few Model 204

failures

.

Overall Impression : FDA wanted a system that was already in use,

one that required little support effort after initial file

definition and creation, and one in which non-ADP users could

operate with little training. Other criteria concerning the

technical capabilities of the system were also met by Model

204. The vendor support has been good; performance of the

system is also good. FDA has been very satisfied with Model

204.

3.8 SYSTEM 2000 Used at Department of Agriculture

Name of Agency : Department of Agriculture

Statistical Reporting Service (SRS)

DBMS Packages Used : System 2000

66
When Installed : In June 1974 SRS began use of SYSTEM 2000 via the

INFONET Time Sharing Service, provided by Computer Sciences

Corporation under GSA contract.

Background : At the time of system selection, System 2000 had department-wide approval as the Agriculture data base management system. System 2000 was accessible by SRS on the Department's computer at the Washington Computer Center, and also

on the INFONET system. The INFONET timesharing service was

chosen to develop the early stages of an eventual USDA network service, because it provided a national processing network which SRS required and which the Washington Computer Center

did not provide. The application of System 2000 is still in

the development stage.

Applications : The Official Estimates Data Base (OEDB) is a collection of data bases of the official published estimates for

crops, livestock, farm labor, prices paid, and county estimates. Commodity statistics and official estimates are released by the Statistical Reporting Service. Last year, there

were 589 releases; this amounts to approximately 50 reports

per month.

Computer Environment : The INFONET Timesharing Service of Computer

Sciences Corporation makes use of UNIVAC 1108 computer systems.

The Computer Sciences' Timesharing System (CSTS) is a proprietary operating system developed by the Computer Sciences Corporation. INFONET provides a nationwide network service supporting concurrent interactive timesharing and remote batch

processing.

Operation and Use : On-line queries are not presently being used

because the OEDB is not operational. However, on-line queries

are expected to be about 100 per day via the computer network.

On-line updates are not planned for the completed system. All

modifications to the data base will be batched under SRS control. Batch queries are used to generate the output reports.

The volume of batch queries is estimated at about 15-30 per day.

Application Data Characteristics : Before release to the public

,

the information in the data base needs to be kept confidential.

Two separate files — public and private — are being developed

to provide the required security. The present developmental

data base of crop information contains approximately 100,000

characters. The full OEDB will consist of six files: Private

Crops, Public Crops, Private Livestock, Public Livestock,

Private Prices Paid and Farm Labor, and Public Prices Paid

and Farm Labor. The expected size of the Crops public file

will be 2 million characters per year with a history of 5 to

10 years. There are 71 data elements for the Crops Public

file containing six levels of hierarchical definition with

67
repeating groups. The data types are almost all numeric of

fixed length.

Application Program Characteristics : Approximately six COBOL PLI

(System 2000's Procedural Language Interface module) application programs will be developed for the crop data base.

The functions are all for pre-processing the data prior to

entering into the files. Further application programs such

as utility programs to select, print and plot data are being

planned.

Users : The envisioned use of the system is for direct support

of the estimating process, and therefore the users will be

subject matter specialists from various parts of the country

who will query the data base. The maintenance of the data

base will be carried out by programmer/analysts of SRS. SRS

has at present two data base administrators plus a pool of

about 26 programmer/analysts who will be supporting the OEDB

application.

Experiences with System 2000 : Since the INFONET system is a

service, there was no need for system installation. The data

definition effort required approximately three months of

planning, and loading the definition, into the system took

about two days. Data loading for the System 2000 was accomplished by writing a COBOL program. INFONET provides consultation, documentation, and training to their subscribers.

Overall Impression - SRS feels that System 2000 adequately fits

their requirements. The system not only has Agriculture

Departmental-wide approval but also provides an easy to use

language for querying. However, the unique security requirements, i.e., security at the data element value level, cannot be

conveniently handled by System 2000.

3.9 SYSTEM 2000 Used at Environmental Protection Agency

Name of Agency : Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Management Information and Data Systems Division

DBMS Package Used : System 2000

When Installed : Purchased in March 1974.

Background : EPA wanted a data base management system that would

operate on two different computer systems: the UNIVAC 1110

in North Carolina and the IBM 370 in Washington, D.C. In

addition, they wanted a system that would be operational

in a short time frame with various types of needed applications. The system would also need to be flexible in file

maintenance and have an end-user oriented query language.

68
System 2000 was the system chosen to meet these criteria.

Applications : EPA has various applications on System 2000. One

of these is the Air Pollution and Emissions Testing System.

The Mobile Services Enforcement Division of State and Local

Governments maintains information on the most polluting

motor vehicles in use. The data base contains information

on four different test methods and the results of each test

method on different vehicles. Another application is the

Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasures (SPCC) data base

system. This system contains information about various facilities plans on spill prevention. It also stores descriptions of 'the facilities, circumstances of the spills, measures

taken or contemplated, etc.

Computer Environment : System 2000 is operating on an IBM 370/158

at Optimum Systems , Inc . , the contractor providing computer

services to the EPA. The IBM version of System 2000 runs

under TSO using 170K bytes of core in a single thread mode.

System 2000 is also operational on the UNIVAC 1110. The

applications described below are those on the IBM system.

Operation and Use : For the Air Pollution and Emissions Testing

System, the majority of updates occurs in batch mode. Reports are also produced in the batch mode. On-line queries

will be used at field sites. The volume of queries is not

known at this time. At the present time, most of the effort

is in constructing the data base. However, future expectations are for more on-line query activity from various field

sites. For the SPCC application, there will be all batch

updates and on-line entry of queries. Special or standard

.reports will be produced in deferred batched mode.

Application Data Characteristics : In the Air Pollution and Emissions Testing System, data are mostly numeric and have three

levels of hierarchy with repeating groups. Approximately 200

million characters of data are stored in this' single data base.

In the SPCC application, data are mostly alphanumeric and have

three levels of hierarchy with repeating groups. Each record

contains eight data elements.

Application Program Characteristics : In the Air Pollution and

Emissions Testing System, a COBOL program is used to edit

the input data. A COBOL PLI (System 2000 's Procedure Language

Interface Module) program loads the data into the data base.

A "Summary Retrieval Program" written in COBOL PLI extracts

data from the data base and passes this data to another COBOL

program which formats the data, producing six different reports. In the SPCC application, a COBOL program is used to

edit and reformat the input data. A COBOL PLI program loads

the changes into the data base. A COBOL PLI program will

69
produce a Spill Report under certain conditions as a result

of the updates. Ad Hoc queries in System 2000 language produce output from the system.

Users : The majority of the Air Pollution and Emissions Testing

System users will be field engineers using query language °f

the Immediate Access Module. These engineers will be given a

two day training in the System 2000 query language. Maintenance

of the data base will be done by programmer/analysts at EPA

Headquarters. The users of the SPCC system are subject matter

specialists who query the data base from regional offices.

Maintenance of the data base is done by programmer/analysts.

Experiences with System 2000 : MRI installed System 2000, but did

not completely interface the system with TSO. MRI returned

to complete the installation. A separate contract was awarded

to MRI for initial assistance in data base definition. EPA

has not experienced any software problems. When problems do

occur, the vendor takes care of them in a short period of time.

Vendor support is through a separate contract with MRI. This

method of system support minimizes the time required for production of operational application systems. EPA feels that

the System 2000 documentation is adequate.

Overall Impression : EPA feels that System 2000 provides what they

were looking for: (1) a data base system operating on two

computer systems ; ( 2 ) flexibility in file maintenance ; ( 3 ) an

end-user oriented query language; and (4) very quickly

developed new applications. System 2000 does not provide

an explicit indication when file reorganization is required.

System performance degradation has been experienced. System

performance can be improved when the user invokes the REORGANIZE

command which re-shuffles only the pointer tables. Although

four data bases can be opened simultaneously with the PLI

modules, no multi-data base capability exists at present in

the Immediate Access Module. However, the present applications

at EPA do not require multi-data base inquiry processing

capability

.

3.10 TOTAL Used at Bureau of Labor Statistics

Name of Agency : Department of Labor

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)

DBMS Packages Used : TOTAL

When Installed : Purchased in December 1972 for approximately

$30,0000.

Background : In 1971 BLS decided to redesign their statistical

programs . Evaluation studies were conducted for selection

of a generalized data base management system for the BLS

70
data processing needs. This study resulted in the purchase

of TOTAL in December 1972. Testing of TOTAL was done in-house.

The testing procedures verified that TOTAL was adequate for

their needs and it was put into operational use in September

1973.

Applications : The Bureau of Labor Statistics gathers and receives

vast amounts of data from State and local governments. The

information is mostly survey data on socio-economic phenomena,

and in general, comprises numbers which frequently are aggregated into time series. For example, one of the thirteen

applications using TOTAL is the Federal/State Employment Hours

Earning System (E&E). This data, received from various State

and local governments on magnetic tape, punched card or paper

forms, are entered into the data base in batch mode. The

outputs from the data base are statistics in tabular form on

employment and earnings.

Computer Environment : The TOTAL package is installed on the BLS's

IBM 360/65 as well as the IBM 370/168, operating under OS with

2 OK bytes of core. Although TOTAL is marketed with ENVIRON

(a teleprocessing interface), BLS does not have this option

since they operate only in batch mode at the present time.

Operation and Use : The TOTAL system resides in the library and

executes as a regular batch task under OS. The volume of

batch updates for the ESE is on the order of 180,000 per

month. Batch queries are less numerous and are usually

performed for bulk data extraction. Extracted data are then

used as input to programs for statistical calculations and

cross tabulation. The data base is kept on disks.

Application Data Characteristics : The largest TOTAL data base

at BLS is over 200 million bytes. It is partitioned into

about ten different files, of which two are Master files

("Master" in TOTAL'S terminology means the collection of

data elements that are single entry, quickly searchable and

contain the root segments of a hierarchical set of data.

The other files are referred to as "Member" files or variable

entry files . ) The data are principally numeric and are

mostly fixed length.

Application Program Characteristics : About thirty specific COBOL

application programs have been built around TOTAL for the

E£E System. Other functional programs perform editing and

screening of data and interfacing to statistical routines

(called SOUPAC), cross tabulation routines (called TPL) , plus

photo composition, graphical display and microfilm output

programs. TOTAL does not have built-in data type checking

on input, nor data conversion on output. Application programs

are needed for these functions. Although TOTAL is also

71
marketed with SOCRATES (a language for a report/display

writer), BLS does not have this capability. All output programs are custom application programs. PL/1 is the major

procedural language used for application programs.

Users : The majority of users are statisticians and economists who

have had training in data base concepts and are able to submit batch runs to extract data from the TOTAL data base. The

updates are performed by PL/1 and COBOL programmers.

Experience with TOTAL: To install TOTAL under OS, the user prepares the JCL to allocate the required space for the data

base files. BLS first establishes a data dictionary. The

definition effort is comparable to writing a COBOL file

definition section. A utility program, called FORMAT, formats

the disk area according to TOTAL requirements and a userwritten load program is needed to compile, link and load the

data values. Once installed, the data base is very easy to

maintain. At BLS, this effort takes one day a month.

Vendor support is reportedly good. The vendor provides a

two-day training program as part of the purchase price. BLS

found this adequate to install TOTAL and now operates the

system on their own. Documentation provided by CINCOM is

rated as adequate and improving. The vendor's marketing

philosophy is to keep TOTAL small and simple, therefore very

little enhancement and augmentation have been provided.

TOTAL is as close to a "bug-free" program as BLS has experienced .

Overall Impression : BLS considers that they do not need selfcontained data base management systems , but rather an access

method to organize the data base and deal with the physical

storage structure. Since the output presentation of their

data is customized, and the data are never retrieved by

single queries, BLS feels that a query language with report

writing capability is not a key requirement for them. BLS

survey data have multiple values with hierarchical attributes

and therefore require a DBMS which supports a "network" file

structure

.

TOTAL was the sole software package in late 1972 that supported a network data structure on the IBM 360/370 series

of computers. TOTAL requires small amounts of core (basic

package needs only 13K bytes), is inexpensive ($30,000 to

purchase) and is easy to install.

72
3 . 11 TOTAL Used at Social Security Administration

Name of Agency : Social Security Administration, HEW

DBMS Package Used : TOTAL

When Installed : Purchased in 1972.

Background: Social Security Administration wanted a system to be

quickly installed and flexible enough to build their own applications. Also, the key requirements were storage efficiency and

speed of access. They did not have a requirement for Boolean

conditional searches. Retrievals are almost always a single record inspection. A study was conducted and three DBMS were considered: IMS, TOTAL and ADABAS. ADABAS was relatively new

in 1972. The heavy emphasis on storage efficiency was the

determining factor in the choice of TOTAL. (The storage expansion factor of TOTAL is said to be 15% to 20% over the raw

data.

)

Applications : There are three applications on TOTAL which operate

under the Social Security Network called SSADARS (Social Security Administration Data Acquisition and Response System)

.

The largest application is the Supplemental Security Income

Program. This data base contains records for about 5.5 million welfare recipients. This data base is queried on-line

(to resolve problem cases) in field offices in different parts

of the United States via SSADARS. Another application is

the case-control application. This data base contains records

of all cases which require special attention. A third application is the Message Intercept Facility which has no user

interface. It uses TOTAL to maintain a list of all the

remote printers that are not functioning, so that messages to

the "down" printers can be intercepted, stored and later forwarded .

Computer Environment : TOTAL runs on an IBM 370/168 under VS-2

at the Social Security Administration. 15 OK bytes of core plus

buffers are required to operate the system. There are more

than 750 output terminals in the field offices communicating

with the central computer via the SSADARS network.

Operation and Use : For the Supplemental Security Income Program

application, approximately 100,000 on-line queries are made

each day by the claims representatives. The nature of the

queries are always a single record retrieval keyed by the

Social Security Number. Conditional relations combined with

Boolean operators are not used. All updates are done In

batch mode. For the five and one-half million records of the

Supplementary Security Income Program, there are approximately

200,000 changes per month. There are several batch programs

73
written mainly in COBOL that are used for statistical gathering purposes.

Application Data Characteristics : There are approximately 30 files

in the data base. The data are mostly coded and of fixed

length. There are no large amounts 'of textual data. Each

record consists of a fixed part and a variable repeating

group part. For the Supplemental Security Income Program,

the average record size is 450 characters.

Application Program Characteristics : COBOL and assembly language

are used for application programming. For example, an inhouse input/output handler was written to get data from the

TOTAL data base and translate it into a fixed format. Social

Security has built an in-house query language for the field

offices. The query language uses a transaction number for

invoking a predefined process, and almost always one specific

record is retrieved and displayed in response to a query.

Users : The field offices are given a procedure manual and the

transactional codes for various types of retrievals. Updating

and data entry are done by programmer/analysts. At present,

Social' Security has a large application programming staff

and has five data base specialists.

Experiences with TOTAL : Social Security has had no problems with

the installation of TOTAL. A short period of time was required to make TOTAL operational. The vendor is verv responsive to users but new enhancements to TOTAL are slow. There

is a TOTAL users group which meets twice a year. Social

Security feels that the documentation could be a little more

complete

.

Overall Impression : TOTAL was developed with small users (DOS

environment) in mind. It is simple to use. However, large

multi-file users may experience difficulty because of the

lack of reentrant coding and the lack of capability for accessing multi-file data bases. All the data files are locked

out when one is being accessed for structural maintenance

purposes. Therefore, simultaneous processing of several data

files is impossible. Reorganization of data is necessary

when the system runs out of space; performance degrades because of the addition of new variable data records over a

period of time. Single record retrieval is very efficient

with TOTAL and flexible user language can be built to suit

in-house users.

74
4.0 APPLICATION CONSIDERATIONS OF DBMS

It is almost impossible to find an off-the-shelf DBMS which does

everything and is exactly tailored for an intended application. Systems

are built with different objectives and hence have different capabilities for different application situations. In the design and implementation of a DBMS, design decisions such as file organization and search

strategy tend to gear the system towards- certain applications. Recognition of those design factors is critical in mapping needs to capabilities.

Before choosing a system managers must make a definitive analysis

of their requirements specifically noting which features are mandatory

and which are desirable. Besides weighing the technical trade-offs,

subjective factors such as time and cost constraints, political considerations, prestige concerns, and long range policy must also be

considered.

In this section, seven application considerations are identified

based primarily on system design features peculiar to specific application needs. These considerations should serve to alleviate the

problems associated with selection of a suitable system.

Numeric Data Versus Textual Data Oriented - Even though all of the

DBMS support both numeric and textual data, some systems offer more

capabilities in handling numeric data while others concentrate mere

on processing textual data. Numeric data capabilities can include a

range of arithmetic manipulations and built-in statistical routines.

Textual processing capabilities can include not only the support of

variable length text data fields but provide content search capabilities, for example, vocabulary control, full text inversion, stemming,

synonym matching, display of related terms, etc. A "numeric data processing" system can best be used in financial, accounting, or scientific data system applications, while a textual data processing system

is typically used in legal or bibliographic applications. Among the

systems surveyed, none is considered to be a "textual data processing"

system. All of the six possess numeric processing capability.

Retrieval Oriented Versus Update Oriented - The retrieval algorithms employed by each DBMS consist of trade-off design decisions which

favor either fast retrieval or fast updates. For those that favor

fast retrieval, the technique used is either an inverted index or a

chaining mechanism. However, both techniques created added overhead in

storage space and require more update time to adjust pointers. The

application which requires fast retrieval can best be used in a "static"

data base environment. A "static" data base does not require constant

up-to-the-minute changing. Weekly or even monthly updates could be

tolerated. Examples of such applications are a data base of survey

information and a grants management data base. Other applications

need fast retrieval and constant changes to the data base. Examples

75
of such applications are airline reservation systems and, to some

extent, inventory control applications where most of the activities

are updating of the data bases. Among the systems surveyed, ADABAS,

INQUIRE, MODEL 204, and SYSTEM 2000 are particularly suited for quick

retrieval while IMS and TOTAL are more oriented toward updating activities.

Self- Contained Versus Host Language - The "self-contained" DBMS

provide the users with a language for updating, quering and report

writing while those generally referred to as "host- language" DMBS require writing application programs in a procedural language with embedded calls for data base functions. The self-contained systems in

this study are INQUIRE, MODEL 204, and SYSTEM 2000. All of the systems

surveyed have host- language interfaces and thus can be considered hostlanguage systems, but IMS (stand-alone) and TOTAL can be used only as

host-language systems. ADABAS started as a host-language system, but

has recently provided a query language ADASCRIPT and a report writer

ADAWRITER. Thus, ADABAS is evolving from a host-language to a selfcontained system. IBM has provided an optional query language (Interactive Query Facility) and has recently announced the marriage of

GIS (Generalized Information System) with IMS. Thus, the couple is a

self-contained system.

Both types of systems have advantages and disadvantages. The

self-contained types are end-user oriented with little or no application programming necessary. However, the user is paying for an added

layer of software in terms of efficiency and flexibility. On the other

hand, the host- language type systems provide all the necessary data

management functions plus the total power of a programming language for

manipulating data.

Ad-Hoc Query Versus Pre-Determined Transaction Processing - Another

application paradox is whether the queries of the data base are predetermined or whether they are unforeseeable. Unanticipated queries

or ad-hoc query requirements usually have to pay the penalty of a sequential scan if the needed data elements are not keyed or inverted. For

example, in a payroll or financial data system application, the user

could essentially be allowed to formulate queries with any data elements

in any Boolean combinations. On the other hand, "transactions" are

normally pre-defined functions such as daily output reports with known

sets of parameters. Most applications need both capabilities but the

ratio and relative importance of ad-hoc queries to pre-determined transactions must be defined before system selection.

Pre-Defined Process Via User Language Macro Versus Procedural

Programming Language - Transaction-oriented functions such as daily

reports or new data record entries which are used over and over again,

are customarily pre-constructed and stored in the system. These preconstructed functions called "pre-defined processes" can be created

either by writing a subroutine in a procedural programming language

such as in COBOL, or by using a macro facility with parameter substitu76
tion capabilities provided by the DBMS. Such macros are pre-constructed

by using the DBMS provided language. It is generally contended that

DBMS provided user languages are higher-level than programming languages

and therefore require less skill and time than writing program procedural language such as in COBOL. However, they may be less flexible and

less efficient in programming . INQUIRE, MODEL 204 and SYSTEM 2000 all

provide user language macros, while ADABAS, IMS/VS and TOTAL do not.

Network Versus Non-Network Structures - DBMS usually provides some

means for expressing relationships among data elements. The types of

data structures supported within a DBMS imply certain applications by

the way in which data may be related semantically . For certain applications, data relationships are hierarchical, e.g. , parent-child relationship, while in other cases, more than uni-directional hierarchical

relationship is required. Such relationships are generally referred

to as network relationships. The principal disadvantage of network

data relationship is the complexity of data maintenance. For example,

a "delete" operation in a hierarchical relationship deletes the parent

together with all its descendants, while a "delete" operation in a network relationship requires checking to make sure no other data are related to deleted elements. TOTAL is the only system in this study

which supports network relationships.

Large "Public" Versus Small "Private" Data Base - The problems

associated with processing a data base of all motor-vehicles licenses

in the country, or of social security recipients are very different

from processing a private list of items such as equipment, books on

order, etc. In the first place, the volume of data that needs to be

maintained is different, and secondly, the workload of the application

is much greater. It is important to realize that certain DBMS simply

cannot take heavy workload with large data base sizes without degrading

performance, while some DBMS were built with large users in mind. Unfortunately, no DBMS vendors will admit that their DBMS cannot handle

"big" users. Projected performance criteria cannot be assessed unless

the DBMS has been subject to benchmark tests.

Figure 4 is a matrix summarizing the above application criteria.

This matrix does not include performance considerations of these systems with different size data bases, but the user's experiences provide

insight into how each system performs with respect to its data base

size and the number of terminals operating simultaneously.

An overall evaluation of DBMS must include these application criteria together with considerations of computer configuration, operational environment, and growth potential.

77
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Application Criteria

78
REFERENCES

[1] Schussel, G. , "Data Base Systems Wave of the '70s," Computerworld

Special Report, February 27, 1974, page S/2.

[2] Datapro Research Corporation, "A Buyer's Guide to Data Base Management System," Datapro feature report, Delran, N. J. , November 1974.

[3] CODASYL Systems Committee, "A Survey of Generalized Data Management

Systems," CODASYL Systems Committee Technical Report, May 1969.

[4] CODASYL Systems Committee, "Feature Analysis of Generalized Data

Base Management Systems," CODASYL System Committee Technical

Report, May 1971.

[5] Anderson, R. K. , "Index of Data Management Software Packages,"

National Bureau of Standards, Report 10 932, October 1972.

[6] Fong, E. , "A Survey of Selected Document Processing Systems,"

National Bureau of Standards Technical Note 599, October 1971.

[7] Fife, D.W. , et al. , "A Technical Index of Interactive Information

Systems," National Bureau of Standards Technical Note 819, March

1974.

[8] Marron, B. , et al. , "A Study of Six University-Based Information

Systems," National Bureau of Standards Technical Note 781, June

1973.

[9] Fry, J. P., et al. , "Data Management Systems Survey," MITRE Corporation Report MTP-329, January 1969.

[10] Koehr, G. J., et al., "Data Management Systems Catalog," MITRE

Corporation Report MTP-139, January 1973.

[11] Martin, T. H. , "A Feature Analysis of Interactive Retrieval Systems," Stanford University Report SU-COMM-ICR-74-1, September

1974, (NTIS No. PB-235952/AS)

.

79
<foBS-114A <REV. 7-73)

U.S. DEPT. OF COMM.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA

SHEET

1. PUBLICATION OR REPORT NO.

NBS TN-887

2. Gov't Accession

No.

4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE

SIX DATA. BASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS: FEATURE ANALYSIS S

USER EXPERIENCES

3. Recipient's Accession No.

5. Publication Date November 1975

6. Performing Organization Code

7. AUTHOR(S)

Elizabeth Fong, Joseph Collica, Beatrice Marron

8. Performing Organ. Report No.

9. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME AND ADDRESS

NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20234

10. Project/Task/Work Unit No. 640-1414

11. Contract/Grant No.

12. Sponsoring Organization Name and Complete Address (Street, City, State, ZIP)

Federal Aviation Administration

800 Independence Avenue, S.W.

Washington, D. C. 20591

13. Type of Report & Period

Covered

Final

14. Sponsoring Agency Code

15. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES

16. ABSTRACT (A 200-word or less factual summary of most significant information. If document includes a significant

bibliography or literature survey, mention it here.)

This report presents an objective overview of features of six selected data base

management systems (DBMS) and Federal user experiences with these systems. Application

criteria were developed in order to aid in the evaluation and selection of DBMS.

The advantages of generalized DBMS over traditional methods of software system develop

ment are discussed. The criteria for choice of the six systems' features are presented.

The data reported were gathered from two sources: vendors and users. Vendor informatior

consisted of side-by-side presentation of features of the six DBMS. User experiences

reported are summarized under appropriate headings. This information is used to derive

application criteria for assessing the usability and operational suitability of DBMS to

a variety of data processing requirements.

The six systems reviewed are: ADABAS, IMS/VS, INQUIRE, MODEL 204, SYSTEM 2000, and

TOTAL.

17. KEY WORDS (six to twelve entries; alphabetical order; capitalize only the first letter of the first key word unless a proper name; separated by semicolons)

Data base applications; data base management systems; selection criteria; software

features; system evaluation; system features; user experiences.

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