? Very large tables vs unioning smaller tables

I am currently planning to move a multi-gigabyte network model database over to Oracle. Several of our tables are very large and will grow even larger over time. I am considering splitting these tables into multiple tables based on some criteria, say year. Then to query all tables, I would create a view that did a union on the multiple, yearly tables. I've searched through the manuals and other books I have to try to determine what performance impact such a union would have but have found nothing. Do any of you have an opinion or know of any reference as to the performance differences of querying very large tables versus views created by unioning smaller (but still large) tables?  

Any thoughts would be appreciated.  

Sue Schoch
sue_at_iris.washington.edu Received on Mon Dec 04 1995 - 00:00:00 CET