Problem Set 1

• Course: COSC 460 Databases Fall 2018
• Instructor: Michael Hay
• Assignment: Problem set 1
• Due dates: Wed, Sep 5 at 01:20 PM

Write up answers to the following questions. You may handwrite your answers (please be neat!) or type them. Turn them in at the start of class and be prepared to share your answers.

1. (From Ch. 9.8 Review Questions) Why does every page request go through the buffer manager? What is the buffer pool? What is the difference between a frame in a buffer pool, a page in a file, and a block on a disk?
2. Is the MRU buffer replacement policy susceptible to sequential flooding? Why or why not?
3. Why don’t databases just use virtual memory (which is managed by the OS) rather than build their own buffer manager?
4. This book was published in 2003. What about Fig. 9.1 is outdated?
5. Requesting data from disks can be slow. Identify three techniques that can be used to improve access speed.