Evaluation of a deductive database system for CAD applications

In the deductive database, a large number of query processing techniques has been proposed for the efficient processing of a large amount of data. Several deductive databases actually were proposed based on those techniques. There are only few cases among those, however, where such a system is applied to the practical problem. Consequently, it is not clear to what type of actual problems the deductive database can be applied. In the CAD system, the “indirect” and “conditional” connection relations among components must be specified to utilize the design diagram more efficiently. It is proposed that the techniques of the deductive database can effectively be applied to such a problem to determine efficiently the connection relations. A prototype system was constructed to demonstrate the idea. The prototype is applied to a practical problem and the performance is evaluated. It is shown that the deductive database can effectively be applied to the forementioned problem. In the course of this experiment, several observations are made concerning the realization of the query processing method in the deductive database. This paper outlines the constructed prototype system and discusses the result of evaluation. The range of application for the deductive database as well as the practical usefulness are discussed.