The CD-ROM foster a new data structure
Alan L. Tharp, John L. Furlani · 1993
New technology and new applications often demand new data structures or modifications to existing ones. The CD-ROM is a relatively new technology that provides a very inexpensive storage medium. But it also has the disadvantage of being a read-only medium. This paper introduces the B3-tree, a modification of the popular B-tree. The B3-tree is intended to capture the advantages of the B+-tree with the cost benefits associated with using a CD-ROM. The 3 indicates that the B3-tree uses the three levels of memory hierarchy: primary memory, read-write secondary storage, and the CD-ROM. After describing the workings of the B3-tree, we give test results to illustrate its effectiveness under many conditions.