ABSTRACT

Various mechanisms, such as locking, time-stamped based algorithms, optimistic methods, versioning, have been used to support data consistency in transactions. Depending on the application's environment, InterBase offers the choices of two models for transaction handling, the consistency model, and the con- currency model. This talk presents a comprehensive overview of how Interbase's unique concurrency model, implemented with a multi-generational record structure, can improve global transaction throughput, by allowing a transaction to read a stable view of the database, without having to wait for simultaneous updates to release access to the data. A discussion of how this concurrency model handles the six classic problems of transaction management is presented: Lost updates, Dirty reads, Cursor instability, Non- reproducible reads, Phantom records, Update side effects.