this volume contains 24 papers presented at the sixth international workshop on database machines. the papers cover a wide spectrum of topics including: system architectures, storage structures, associative memory architectures, memory resident systems, deduction and retrospectives on maturing projects. the nature of the papers is highly technical and presumes knowledge of database management systems and familiarity with database machines. the book is representative of the dual trend in the field towards (1) search for new functionability and (2) attention to detail, completeness and performance of prototype implementations.