Advanced Information Management (AIM): Advanced database technology for integrated applications

The Advanced Information Management (AIM) project is currently one of the main activities at the IBM Scientific Center in Heidelberg. The main purpose of the project is to understand the database requirements and respective solutions for advanced integrated applications such as computer-integrated manufacturing and computer-integrated office. These application areas require an advanced database technology which is able to manage a large variety of data of various types in a consistent and efficient way. The underlying database technology should support not only simple numbers and simple tables used in business administration, but also large complex structured objects, including text, image, and voice data, in a uniform way. This paper describes the background, goals, and accomplishments of the AIM project. It also provides an overview of the design goals, the implementation, and the underlying concepts of AIM-P, an experimental database management system under development in the AIM project.