Future database systems must feature extensible data models and data languages in order to accommodate the novel data types and special-purpose operations that are required by nontraditional database applications. In this paper, we outline a functional data model and data language that are targeted for the semantic interface of GENESIS, an extensible DBMS. The model and language are generalizations of FQL [11] and DAPLEX [40], and have an implementation that fits ideally with the modularity required by extensible database technologies. We explore different implementations of functional operators and present experimental evidence that they have efficient implementations. We also explain the advantages of a functional front-end to ¬1NF databases, and show how our language and implementation are being used to process queries on both 1NF and ¬1NF relations.

A novel yet simple technology is presented that enables customized database management systems (DBMSs) to be developed rapidly. The authors are designing an extensible DBMS, called GENESIS, which is based on this theory. They give a detailed description of their first operational prototype. DBMS software components in GENESIS can be written in a few months. When all components for a target DBMS are present, writing the architecture specification of the DBMS and reconfiguring GENESIS takes a few hours and can be accomplished with negligible cost.>