Re: specialized machines

[bds@MBUNIX.MITRE.ORG]

1) The back end of the system must talk to an IBM mainframe.  
2) Since each workstation has its own local database, and the multiuser
database is used as a central repository of data only, there must be
multiple processes in order to keep all local databases in sync.
3) When many of these decisions were made, Statice was not readily
available.
4) Statice runs only on Symbolics machines, Oracle runs on something 
like 85 platforms ranging from ms-dos and mac II's to unix to IBM
mainframes.
5) Graphael is not a multiuser databse.  It is a single user database
in which objects only persist until a transaction is committed.  Then
memory is cleared until the next transaction, when objects are recreated.
This is diametrically opposed to our design philosophy.
6) Graphael has, in alpha test, a version that interfaces with Oracle.
This is their multiuser version.  They have replaced the disk-access of
Gbase with a nice, elegant interface to Oracle.  They then use Oracle's
multiuser capabilities, not their own.  This also doesn't fit our needs.
7) I have heard good things about Chronos from BBN, but for better or
worse, we're not using it.

Barry Smith