Introduction to Data Management

Glossary
Glossary-14 15873 Tandem Computers Incorporated
System. A computer system that consists of from 2 to 16 processors on a dual
communication path (DYNABUS interprocessor bus). A system in a network of
systems is also called a node.
System failure. The failure of system components (CPUs or buses) to remain online,
making the system unusable.
Table. A logical representation of data in a relational database in which a set of
records is represented as a sequence of rows, and the set of fields common to all the
records is represented as a series of columns. The intersection of a row and a column
represents the data value of a particular field in a particular record.
Table lock. In NonStop SQL, a lock held by a process on all the rows in a table.
Takeover processing. In RDF, a situation in which you direct the backup system to take
over processing activities during a disaster at the primary system. Takeover is
invoked by issuing an RDFCOM command at the backup system.
TCP. Terminal control process, a PATHWAY requester process that is responsible for
terminal management and transaction control. A TCP is a multi-tasking process that
interprets and executes the screen programs in your application, and that coordinates
communication between the screen programs, their devices, the server processes, and
PATHMON.
TEDIT. An advanced, full-screen text editor that allows you to create and modify EDIT
files.
TERM. In PATHWAY, a definition of a task that uses a screen program to control I/O
devices (such as terminals or workstations) or I/O processes (such as front-end
processes). Each task runs as a thread in a TCP, which can handle many such tasks
concurrently. For each dedicated I/O device or process that you configure, you must
explicitly define a TERM.
Terminal control process. See TCP.
Throughput. The number of transactions that the system can process in a particular
span of time--expressed, for example, as transactions per second. As throughput
increases, the cost of each transaction falls proportionally.
TMF. Transaction Monitoring Facility, a software product that manages transactions
requested by programs. TMF helps maintain database consistency and integrity, and
protects the database against damage due to system or media failures.
TMF transaction. A transaction protected by TMF, so that the transaction only makes
database changes permanent if all the operations in the transaction complete
successfully. The transaction is expressly defined by statements within your
application program.
TMFCOM. An interactive utility by which system managers can configure and control
TMF and its facilities.