Intelligent storage devices for scalable information management systems

For most large commercial organisations the ability to store and manipulate massive volumes of data is a key operational requirement. Database systems are fundamental to the efficient provision of a range of business tasks from on-line transaction processing, decision support and enterprise information systems. High performance multiprocessor database servers open up new possibilities for the realisation of these commercial requirements. If these opportunities are to be realised intelligent storage devices will be required to provide a uniform interface regardless of implementation and which also directly supports the basic need of scalability. In this paper we explore some of the issues for such a device