The Teradata Multimedia Database System is a massively parallel object-relational database that is used to store, retrieve, manipulate, and analyze complex object data, including multimedia data. It is based on the emerging SQL3 database query language standard, that brings object support into the relational model in the form of Abstract Data Types (ADTs) and User Defined Functions (UDFs). This database system runs on the NCR massively parallel computers and can be configured to handle databases approaching one Petabyte (10E15 bytes) in size. Massive parallelism allows such databases to achieve close to linear performance scalability as they increase in size. This talk will cover the architecture of the Teradata Multimedia Database System, and technical solutions related to large object storage and transmission, multimedia data warehouses, object feature extraction, and parallel execution of queries. The talk concludes with a description of a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) program to develop a National Medical Practice Knowledge Bank, using this database as the central multimedia data repository.

Warren Sterling is Director of Teradata Multimedia for the Parallel Systems division of NCR and has responsibility for building multimedia server capability into the Teradata Database, a high end parallel relational database. He has over 25 years of technical and managerial experience in the computer field developing massively parallel computer systems, multimedia databases, image processing systems, advanced display processors, and optical computers. He came to NCR via the acquisition of Teradata Corporation by NCR in 1991. He joined Teradata in 1982 after 8 years with the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. In Teradata, as Director of Hardware Engineering, he was responsible for the design and implementation of the last three generations of the DBC/1012, the world’s first massively parallel computer for business applications. He received his BSEE from the University of Illinois, Urbana, and his MSEE and Ph.D. degrees from Carnegie-Mellon University.

 The Los Angeles Chapter normally meets the first Wednesday of each month at Ramada Hotel, 6333 Bristol Parkway, Culver City. The program begins at 8 PM. From the San Diego Freeway (405) take the Sepulveda/Centinela exit southbound or the Slauson/Sepulveda exit northbound.

Please join us for dinner. The charge is $19 with a reservation, $21 without.

There is always a choice of beef, either chicken or fish, or vegetarian plate.

Dinner is served at 7:00 PM with a preceding social hour at 6:30 PM.

To make a reservation, contact Ed Manderfield, (310) 391-5936, and indicate your choice of entree, by Sunday before the dinner meeting. There is no charge or reservation required to attend the program.

For membership information, contact Lee Schmidt, (805) 393-6224.

List of 1995-1996 meetings

 Last revision: 1998 Jan 19 [ls]