On Transforming a Sequential SQL-DBMS into a Parallel One: First Results and Experiences of the MIDAS Project

One way to satisfy the increasing demand for processing power and I/O bandwidth is to have parallel database management systems (PDBMS) that employ a number of processors, loosely or tightly coupled, serving database requests concurrently. In this paper we want to show an evolution path from an existing and commercially available sequential SQL database system to a parallel SQL database system. This transformation process is described from a software engineering and software reuse point of view emphasizing the system architec- ture. We report on first results and experiences gained while transforming the existing sequential system and constructing the new PDBMS.