The HIPERFILE/PFA concept
In BS2000, the term “HIPERFILE concept” (High Performance Files) refers to a collection of enhancements in both the system software and the hardware, designed to speed up access to data and eliminate any I/O bottlenecks which may exist by the use of file “caching”. Storage with fast access times is used to provide a buffer (or “cache”) storage, so that the incompatibility between the access time to main memory and the (longer) access times for hard disk can be reduced.
The BS2000 HIPERFILE concept provides caching in the various cache media both via the command interface of the subsystem involved and by means of a standardized command interface integrated in DMS:
ADM-PFA (Administrator Performant File Access):
Caching in main memory by means of privileged commands of the software product DAB.
ADM-PFA caching is described in the “DAB” [10] manual.PFA (User Performant File Access):
Caching by means of embedding hiperfiles in DMS.
The use of the PFA concept by the user is described in the “Introductory Guide to DMS” [19].
Embedding of the hiperfiles in DMS is implemented by making it possible to assign a cache medium to each pubset, and also by enabling users to specify appropriate attributes, which declare their files as hiperfiles for high performance processing.