Amazon.com description: Product Description: Designed for students studying an advanced course in data and knowledge base systems, this text shows the reader how straightforward techniques for logical and physical design can be used to reason about the many complex issues and trade-offs involved in designing and implementing data-intensive systems. Divided into four parts, the text examines issues of database design, database technology and various DBMS models and architectures (including object-oriented, deductive, parallel, distributed and real-time systems.) With numerous illustrations, examples, exercises and a running case study throughout, this text is aimed at students on an advanced database course. It should also be of interest to practitioners designing and developing data-intensive and multimedia systems. The principle themes developed in the book are: the description of the core elements of database technology in terms of their principles and implementation techniques; the effects of large memory on data management techniques; the use of Parallel and distributed systems; the integration of physical and logical design activities; the development of data-intensive systems and applications for a wide variety of non-traditional database applications areas.