RAP.2—An Associative Processor for Databases and Its Applications

RAP—a Relational Associative Processor—is a back-end or peripheral device to augment a general purpose computer for implementing a database management system (DBMS) Its architecture is based on the fact that database operations are inherently set-oriented and that data base addressing is best accomplished through associative reference to achieve high data independence. RAP utilizes these characteristics by combining the features of associative and array processors. Previous publications on RAP have dealt separately with the details of the first version of its architecture [1]-[4] language interface [5],[6] and performance evaluation [7]-[9]. This paper provides details on a recently evolved, faster, and more flexible architecture for RAP called RAP. 2 [17].