dtj v08-03 1996

This document is the Digital Technical Journal, Volume 8, Number 3, published in 1996. It features a collection of technical papers covering various aspects of computing relevant to Digital Equipment Corporation's work.

The issue includes articles on:

1. Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6): Digital's experience in implementing an IPv6 prototype on Digital UNIX is detailed, highlighting the transition from IPv4, the expanded address space (from 32 to 128 bits), and new features for future network needs.
2. Preservation of Historical Computer Systems: This paper advocates for understanding computing's past as vital for its future, describing techniques like restoration (e.g., a PDP-11 system) and simulation (using SIM to re-create historical computer architectures as software).
3. Fortran for Parallel Computing: The article discusses how modern Fortran has evolved into a viable language for parallel scientific computing, covering Fortran 90 features, parallel extensions, and shared-memory parallelism for optimizing code.
4. Server Performance Evaluation and Optimization: Two papers cover this topic:
   • TruCluster Systems under TPC-C Benchmark: Digital's achievement of record-setting TPC-C performance on a four-node AlphaServer 8400 5/350 TruCluster system with Oracle Parallel Server is detailed, attributing success to system tuning and features like the MEMORY CHANNEL interconnect and distributed lock manager.
   • Performance Analysis Using Very Large Memory (VLM): This paper explores optimization techniques (like locking intrinsics and OM profile-based optimization) used with VLM database technology on the 64-bit AlphaServer 8400, resulting in significant throughput increases and improved database-cache hit ratios.
5. Internet Collaboration Software: The development of Digital's AltaVista Forum software is presented, emphasizing its use of the World Wide Web as an infrastructure for building collaboration applications for both NT and UNIX systems, including features like a built-in database, indexing, and search capabilities.

The journal aims to share Digital's engineering strengths and insights across these key areas of computing technology.