Active data structures
Gregory R. Andrews, David Dobkin · International Workshop on Real-time Ada Issues · 1981
Data structures have traditionally been regarded as passive software objects implemented by procedures and as having only one view, i.e., only a single set of access functions for manipulation. The advent of microprocessor technology suggests that we rethink our previous models of data structures. This leads to a different approach in which data structures are active and provide multiple views to users. Both these ideas imply that data structures will be implemented by processes. This makes it feasible to implement each data structure on its own processor. In this paper, we describe the active data structures/multiple views model and provide two examples of its utility: a file directory system and a graphics application.