Partial Computation in Real-Time Database Systems

 Susan B. Davidson and Aaron Watters

 A critical component of real-time systems is the database, which is used to
 store external input such as environmental readings from sensors, as well as
 system information.  Typically, these databases are large, due to vast
 quantities of historical data, and are
 distributed, due to the distributed topology of the devices controlling the
 application.  Hence, sophisticated database management systems
 are needed.  However, most of the time the databases systems are hand-coded.
 Off-the-shelf database management systems are not used due in part to a lack of
 predictability of response.  We motivate the use
 of partial computation of database queries as a method of improving
 the fault-tolerance and predictability of response in real-time database 
 systems.