Chong-Mok Park

Octree-R: an adaptive octree for efficient ray tracing

Ray tracing requires many ray-object intersection tests. A way of reducing the number of ray-object intersection tests is to subdivide the space occupied by objects into many nonoverlapping subregions, called voxels, and to construct an octree for the subdivided space. We propose the Octree-R, an octree-variant data structure for efficient ray tracing. The algorithm for constructing the Octree-R first estimates the number of ray-object intersection tests. Then, it partitions the space along the plane that minimizes the estimated number of ray-object intersection tests. We present the results of experiments for verifying the effectiveness of the Octree-R. In the experiment, the Octree-R provides a 4% to 47% performance gain over the conventional octree. The result shows the more skewed the object distribution (as is typical for real data), the more performance gain the Octree-R achieves.

A new method for estimating the number of objects satisfying an object-oriented query involving partial participation of classes

Abstract The intermediate result cardinality — the number of objects satisfying a condition given in a query — is an important factor for estimating the cost of the query in query optimization. In this paper we show that an object-oriented query often involves partial participation of classes in a relationship. We then present a new technique for estimating the intermediate result cardinality in such a query. Partial participation has not been considered seriously in existing techniques. Since the proposed technique uses detailed statistics to accommodate partial participation, it estimates the intermediate result cardinality more accurately than existing ones. We also show that these statistics are easily obtained by using inherent properties of object-oriented databases.

A cost-based buffer replacement algorithm for object-oriented database systems

Abstract Many object-oriented database systems manage object buffers to provide fast access to objects. Traditional buffer replacement algorithms based on fixed-length pages simply assume that the cost incurred by operating a buffer is proportional to the number of buffer faults. However, this assumption no longer holds in an object buffer where objects are of variable-lengths and the cost of replacing an object varies for each object. In this paper, we propose a cost-based replacement algorithm for object buffers. The proposed algorithm replaces the objects that have minimum costs per unit time and unit space. The cost model extends the previous page-based one to include the replacement costs and the sizes of objects. The performance tests show that the proposed algorithm is almost always superior to the LRU-2 algorithm and, when significant replacement cost is involved, is more than twice as fast.

Providing orthogonal persistence to C++ using forced inheritance

Orthogonal persistence, a property that any object can be made to persist independent of its type, is an important requirement of a persistent language. We present a new technique called forced inheritance for providing the orthogonal persistence to C++. In this technique, properties that make objects persist are attached as a header to an object or a value of any type that is desired to persist. Attaching the header gives the effect of inheriting these properties from a virtual persistent root class regardless of its type. This technique provides orthogonal persistence since attaching the header to an object can be done for any object. It also provides portability since it does not extend the language. The new, approach not only has advantages over existing ones, but also can be efficiently implemented.<<ETX>>

A cost-based replacement algorithm for object buffers

Many object-oriented database systems manage object buffers to provide fast access to objects. Traditional buffer replacement algorithms based on fixed-length pages simply assume that the cost incurred by operating a buffer is proportional to the number of buffer faults. However, this assumption no longer holds in an object buffer where objects are of variable-lengths and the cost of replacing an object varies for each object. We propose a cost-based replacement algorithm for object buffers. The proposed algorithm replaces the objects that have minimum costs per unit time and unit space. The cost model extends the previous page-based one to include the replacement costs and the sizes of objects. The performance tests show that the proposed algorithm is almost always superior to the LRU-2 algorithm and, when significant replacement cost is involved, is more than twice as fast.