In this clearly written, well-organized text, Morse and Isaac discuss the basic concepts of parallel processing, including symmetric multiprocessors, distributed memory machines, and distributed shared memory machines. They point out the advantages and disadvantages of the various approaches and pay considerable attention to the question of scalability, identifying applications that might be appropriate to one approach but not to another where scalability would be a problem.
They discuss parallel relational database processing and provide details on how to parallelize relational models. In addition to data partitioning, join operations, and utilities, they pay considerable attention to sorting. This general treatment of relational database processing is followed by good examples of commercial applications. These chapters indicate how the applications have been modified to compensate for any potential processing bottlenecks. The treatment is down-to-earth.
The final section concludes with chapters on online analytical processing, data mining, object-relational databases (universal database servers), and implementation considerations. The book focuses exclusively on Unix systems because Unix is an industry standard, the authors did not want to deal with proprietary standards, and they were most familiar with Unix. They are oriented to decision support systems as opposed to online transaction processing systems (OLTPs), although they do realize that parallel processing has been effective in OLTPs.
The examples and analogies are clearly presented and clarify the text. A list of 20 questions in the implementation chapter is designed to determine the possible success or failure of your potential application. “Having good answers to these questions is a strong indication of eventual success. Failure to answer a question indicates a chink in the armor and hence an area that probably needs to be addressed” (p.357). A suggested references section and a comprehensive index complete the book. This is a well-written, intelligently organized treatment of an important subject.
