An Inverted File Processor for Information Retrieval

Response time in large, inverted file document retrieval systems is determined primarily by the time required to access files of document identifiers on disk and perform the processing associated with a Boolean search request. This paper describes a specialized computer system capable of performing these functions in hardware. Using this equipment, a complicated sample search involving 70 terms and over 67 000 document references can be performed from 13 to 60 times faster than with a conventional machine. Alternatively, many small searches can be processed concurrently with little effect upon system performance. Similar configurations can be applied to standard merging and sorting problems.