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A self-defining hierarchical data systemThe Self-Defining Data System (SDS) is a system which allows the creation of self-defining hierarchical data structures in a form which allows the data to be moved between different machine architectures. Because the structures are self-defining they can be used for communication between independent modules in a distributed system. Unlike disk-based hierarchical data systems such as Starlink's HDS, SDS works entirely in memory and is very fast. Data structures are created and manipulated as internal dynamic structures in memory managed by SDS itself. A structure may then be exported into a caller supplied memory buffer in a defined external format. This structure can be written as a file or sent as a message to another machine. It remains static in structure until it is reimported into SDS. SDS is written in portable C and has been run on a number of different machine architectures. Structures are portable between machines with SDS looking after conversion of byte order, floating point format, and alignment. A Fortran callable version is also available for some machines.
Document ID
19940017975
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Bailey, J.
(Anglo-Australian Observatory Epping, Australia)
Date Acquired
September 6, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1992
Publication Information
Publication: NASA, Washington, Second Annual Conference on Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems. Abstracts
Subject Category
Documentation And Information Science
Accession Number
94N22448
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.
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