The document discusses different algorithms for performing joins between two database tables:
1. Simple nested loops join compares each tuple in one table to every tuple in the other table, resulting in very high I/O costs.
2. Block nested loops join partitions one table into blocks that fit in memory, joining each block to the other table to reduce I/O.
3. Index nested loops join uses an index on the join column to lookup matching tuples, reducing I/O costs compared to nested loops. The document provides examples comparing the I/O costs of applying different join algorithms to sample tables.