In a single-user configuration, all requests are passed to the database manager from the client program on the same machine:A typical standalone system consists of a workstation with the following components:
A screen for viewing data
A hard disk drive containing the DP4 programs and database
Sufficient memory for loading programs
A diskette or tape drive for backing up the database and transferring data
A keyboard for entering data
A workstation need not be an ordinary PC. A POS terminal can be a workstation, provided it uses a standard operating system such as Windows, Unix/Linux, DOS or FlexOS.
In a single-user configuration, all requests are passed to the database manager from the client program on the same machine:
The capabilities of a standalone workstation can be used to good effect in more complex configurations. In one resilience scheme, if there is a break in the connection to the network, the workstation can continue to operate as a standalone system. The copy of the database on the workstation is used until the connection is re-established.
In a distributed database setup, some database tables can be located on the workstation. The tables on the workstation are likely to have a more rapid response time than those on the network server. This configuration is described in more detail in Distributed Databases.
Stand-alone DP4 often provides an alternative to using DP4 networking on Unix servers. Typically rather tahn connecting with DP4 networking components you can use programs such as TelNet to run DP4 programs in remotely on the server. This can provide a big performance improvement. However currently this restricts you to using a text based version of DP4.