New applications such as computer-aided design(CAD), computeraided manufacturing(CAM), multimedia databases, geographical information systems, medical applications, and office automation require efficient support of large objects. In this thesis, we first analyze the characteristics of large objects and then derive the requirements for efficient handling of large objects. We then design and implement a large object manager based on these requirements. Finally, we integrate the large object manager with a storage system developed for supporting relational database management systems. The characteristics of our storage system are as follows: (1) it supports a large object up to $2^31$ bytes long and (2) allows byte range operations at arbitrary positions within an object. With these characteristics, our storage system can be used as a general-purpose storage system for many types of new applications as well as relational database management systems.
