Lightweight Support for Fine-Grained Persistence on Stock Hardware

168 Pages·2013·0.65 MB·English

by  Antony L. Hosking

University of Massachusetts Amherst
ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst
Computer Science Department Faculty Publication
Computer Science
Series
1995
Lightweight Support for Fine-Grained Persistence
on Stock Hardware
Antony L. Hosking
University of Massachusetts - Amherst
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Hosking, Antony L., "Lightweight Support for Fine-Grained Persistence on Stock Hardware" (1995).Computer Science Department
Faculty Publication Series. 38.
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Lightweight Support for Fine-Grained
Persistence on Stock Hardware
AntonyL.Hosking
Technical Report 95-02
February 1995
ComputerScience Department
UniversityofMassachusettsat Amherst

LIGHTWEIGHTSUPPORT FOR FINE-GRAINED PERSISTENCE
ONSTOCK HARDWARE
ADissertationPresented
by
ANTONYLLOYD HOSKING
SubmittedtotheGraduateSchool ofthe
UniversityofMassachusettsAmherstinpartial fulfillment
oftherequirementsforthedegreeof
DOCTOROF PHILOSOPHY
February 1995
DepartmentofComputerScience
c CopyrightbyAntonyLloydHosking1995
(cid:13)
All RightsReserved
ToCarla
iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
One cannot survive the Ph.D. experience without the support and guidance of a great
manypeople. TothoseindividualsIneglecttomentionherebyname(andtherearemany)
I stilloffermydeepest thanks.
Upon my arrival at a new university in a strange country I was fortunate to land in
the office of Eliot Moss. As my advisor throughout my time at UMass, Eliot has been a
constant source of support, encouragement, and inspiration. His intellectual and scholarly
integrityhasbeentheprimaryrolemodelinmyownacademicdevelopment. Itisanhonor
andaprivilegethatI am nowabletocounthimas acolleague.
Specialthanksmustalsogotomycomradesinarms,themembersoftheObjectSystems
Laboratory,whosecompanionship(bothacademicandotherwise)Ihavegreatlyenjoyed. I
thankAmerDiwanforhisenthusiasmineducatingmeastotheintricaciesofcachememory
simulation, Eric Brown for his tireless support and development of the Mneme persistent
object store, Darko Stefanovic´ for his assistance debugging and improving the garbage
collectortoolkit,RickHudsonforourmanytechnicaldiscussions,andNormWalshforhis
adviceandassistancewithTEXandLATEX(seealsoWalsh[1994]). Thanksalsotothemany
membersoftheOOSlabovertheyearsfortheirpartinmakingitsuchavitalandinteresting
workplace.
This dissertation has been greatly improved by the comments of my examining com-
mittee,LoriClarke,JackStankovic,DaveStempleandWayneBurleson. Theiradviceand
interesthavehelpedmeimmensely.
Lastly, I thank my family for their guidance, encouragement, and confidence. I thank
myparentsfornurturingmeinanenvironmentwherethepursuitofknowledgewasalways
v
such incredible fun, and striving towards excellence a noble goal in itself. To my wife,
Carla Brodley, I am forever indebted for her sage advice and unflagging support through
theupsanddownsofpostgraduatestudentlife. Whenobstaclesappearedtoblockmyway
shesawthewayaroundthemifI didnot.
——
This research has been supported by the National Science Foundation under grants
CCR-9211272, CCR-8658074 and DCR-8500332, and by the following companies and
corporations: SunMicrosystems,DigitalEquipment,AppleComputer,GTELaboratories,
EastmanKodak,General Electric,ParcPlace Systems,XeroxandTektronix.
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ABSTRACT
LIGHTWEIGHTSUPPORT FOR FINE-GRAINED PERSISTENCE
ONSTOCK HARDWARE
FEBRUARY 1995
ANTONYLLOYD HOSKING
B.Sc., UNIVERSITYOFADELAIDE
M.Sc.,UNIVERSITYOFWAIKATO
Ph.D.,UNIVERSITY OFMASSACHUSETTS AMHERST
Directedby: ProfessorJ.EliotB.Moss
Persistent programminglanguages combine the features of database systems and pro-
gramming languages to allow the seamless manipulation of both short- and long-term
data,thusrelievingprogrammersoftheburdenofdistinguishingbetweendatathatis tran-
sient(temporarilyallocatedinmainmemory)orpersistent(residingpermanentlyondisk).
Secondary storage concerns, including the representation and management of persistent
data, are directly handled by the programming language implementation, rather than the
programmer. Moreover, unlike traditional database systems, persistent programming lan-
guagesextendtopersistentdataallthedatastructuringfeaturessupportedbythe language,
notjustthoseimposedbytheunderlyingdatabasesystem.
Prototype persistent languages have until now focused more on functionality than
performance. In contrast, this dissertation addresses performance issues in the language
implementation. It presents an architecture and framework for persistence which allows
programminglanguageimplementationtechniquestobebroughttobearontheproblemof
performance. Buildingonthisframework,aprototypepersistentprogramminglanguageis
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