Large Databases In A Meteorological Environment

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The European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) has embarked upon a project to provide a back-end file server subsystem to a variety of worker machines ranging from a VAX 11-750 to a CRAY X- MP. The project commenced in mid-1982 with a procurement phase, which lasted almost 12 months and is presently in the implementation phase. It is expected that a significant proportion of the project will be completed during 1984. The file server is based upon IBM architecture and will be connected to the worker machines using a 50 million bits per second proprietary local area network supplied by Control Data Corporation. The file server will support a large meteorological database which currently contains around 2 x 1013 bits of information and which is growing at a rate of 3 x 1012 bits per year. A variety of magnetic storage devices (Disk Mass Storage System and Tape) will provide a hierarchical storage system which is well placed to be able to use new devices as they emerge. The paper will describe in detail the application, and the hardware and software necessary to realise the solution adopted at ECMWF. It will also examine its requirements for new storage devices, with particular emphasis on Optical Digital Data Disk Technology.© (1984) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.