Patent ID: 8150850

Claim:
A database management apparatus, comprising: A) a first data store that stores, in a plurality of first memory units, a copy of the data of a logical database model according to a first physical layout, the logical database model comprising at least one table group, wherein each table group includes one root table and at least one other table distinct from the root table and related thereto, each table in the table group being characterized as having columns of attributes and rows of data, wherein each of the plurality of first memory units includes, as a first composite entity, all the data from at least one row of a root table and all related rows of data from the at least one other table related thereto such that rows from multiple distinct tables of the table group are inherently linked and stored in the first memory unit as the first composite entity, the first physical layout providing sequential access, as the first composite entity, to all the data in that root table row and the related data from the at least one other table in response to a query of a first type, the sequential access taking place without individual random accesses to the root table and the at least one other table related thereto, thereby eliminating a need to process a join operation each time such relationship is accessed, and B) a second data store that stores, in a plurality of second memory units, a redundant copy of the data of the logical database model according to a second physical layout wherein each second memory unit includes all data from at least one of the attributes and all the corresponding values of that attribute, the second physical layout providing sequential access, as a set of columns, to the data in each attribute in response to a query of a second type; and C) a data dictionary populated with information from the logical database model that identifies relationships among the tables in different ones of the table groups.