Mimer SQL is a proprietary
SQL
Structured Query Language (SQL) (pronounced ''S-Q-L''; or alternatively as "sequel")
is a domain-specific language used to manage data, especially in a relational database management system (RDBMS). It is particularly useful in handling s ...
-based
relational database management system
A relational database (RDB) is a database based on the relational model of data, as proposed by E. F. Codd in 1970.
A Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) is a type of database management system that stores data in a structured for ...
produced by the
Swedish company ''Mimer Information Technology AB'' (Mimer AB), formerly known as ''Upright Database Technology AB''. It was originally developed as a research project at the
Uppsala University
Uppsala University (UU) () is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation.
Initially fou ...
,
Uppsala
Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019.
Loc ...
,
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
in the 1970s before being developed into a commercial product.
The database has been deployed in a wide range of application situations, including the
National Health Service
The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...
''Pulse''
blood transfusion
Blood transfusion is the process of transferring blood products into a person's Circulatory system, circulation intravenously. Transfusions are used for various medical conditions to replace lost components of the blood. Early transfusions used ...
service in the
UK,
Volvo Cars
Volvo Car AB, trading as Volvo Cars (, styled VOLVO in the company's logo) is a Sweden, Swedish multinational manufacturer of luxury vehicles. Volvo is headquartered in Torslanda, Gothenburg. The company manufactures SUVs, station wagons, and ...
production line in
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
and automotive dealers in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
. It has sometimes been one of the limited options available in realtime critical applications and resource restricted situations such as
mobile device
A mobile device or handheld device is a computer small enough to hold and operate in hand. Mobile devices are typically battery-powered and possess a flat-panel display and one or more built-in input devices, such as a touchscreen or keypad. ...
s.
[
]
History
Mimer SQL originated from a project from the ITC service center supporting
Uppsala University
Uppsala University (UU) () is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation.
Initially fou ...
and some other institutions to leverage the
relational database
A relational database (RDB) is a database based on the relational model of data, as proposed by E. F. Codd in 1970.
A Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) is a type of database management system that stores data in a structured for ...
capabilities proposed by
Codd and others. The initial release in about 1975 was designated ''RAPID'' and was written in
IBM assembler language. The name was changed to ''Mimer'' in 1977 to avoid a trademark issue. Other universities were interested in the project on a number of machine architectures and Mimer was rewritten in
Fortran to achieve portability. Further models were developed for Mimer with the Mimer/QL implementing the
QUEL query languages
QUEL is a relational database query language, based on tuple relational calculus, with some similarities to SQL. It was created as a part of the Ingres DBMS effort at University of California, Berkeley, based on Codd's earlier suggested but ...
.
The emergence of
SQL
Structured Query Language (SQL) (pronounced ''S-Q-L''; or alternatively as "sequel")
is a domain-specific language used to manage data, especially in a relational database management system (RDBMS). It is particularly useful in handling s ...
in the 1980s as the standard query language resulted in Mimers' developers choosing to adopt it with the product becoming ''Mimer SQL''.
In 1984 Mimer was transferred to the newly established company ''Mimer Information Systems''.
Versions
the Mimer SQL
database server
A database server is a server which uses a database application that provides database services to other computer programs or to computers, as defined by the client–server model. Database management systems (DBMSs) frequently provide database- ...
is currently supported on the main platforms of
Windows
Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
,
MacOS
macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...
,
Linux
Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
, and
OpenVMS
OpenVMS, often referred to as just VMS, is a multi-user, multiprocessing and virtual memory-based operating system. It is designed to support time-sharing, batch processing, transaction processing and workstation applications. Customers using Op ...
(
Itanium
Itanium (; ) is a discontinued family of 64-bit computing, 64-bit Intel microprocessors that implement the Intel Itanium architecture (formerly called IA-64). The Itanium architecture originated at Hewlett-Packard (HP), and was later jointly dev ...
and
x86-64
x86-64 (also known as x64, x86_64, AMD64, and Intel 64) is a 64-bit extension of the x86 instruction set architecture, instruction set. It was announced in 1999 and first available in the AMD Opteron family in 2003. It introduces two new ope ...
).
Previous versions of the
database engine was supported on other operating systems including
Solaris,
AIX,
HP-UX
HP-UX (from "Hewlett Packard Unix") is a proprietary software, proprietary implementation of the Unix operating system developed by Hewlett Packard Enterprise; current versions support HPE Integrity Servers, based on Intel's Itanium architect ...
,
Tru 64,
SCO and
DNIX. Versions of Mimer SQL are available for download and free for development.
The
Enterprise
Enterprise (or the archaic spelling Enterprize) may refer to:
Business and economics
Brands and enterprises
* Enterprise GP Holdings, an energy holding company
* Enterprise plc, a UK civil engineering and maintenance company
* Enterpris ...
product is a standards based SQL database server based upon the Mimer SQL Experience database server. This product is highly configurable and components can be added, removed or replacing in the foundation product to achieve a derived product suitable for embedded, real-time or small footprint application.
The ''Mimer SQL Realtime'' database server is a replacement database engine specifically designed for applications where real-time aspects are paramount. This is sometimes marketed as the ''Automotive approach''.
For resource limited environments the ''Mimer SQL Mobile'' database server is a replacement runtime environment without a SQL
compiler
In computing, a compiler is a computer program that Translator (computing), translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primaril ...
. This is used for portable and certain custom devices and is termed the ''Mobile Approach''.
Custom
embedded approaches can be applied to multiple hardware and operating system combinations.
These options enable Mimer SQL to be deployed to a wide variety of additional target platforms, such as
Android, and
real-time operating system
A real-time operating system (RTOS) is an operating system (OS) for real-time computing applications that processes data and events that have critically defined time constraints. A RTOS is distinct from a time-sharing operating system, such as Unix ...
s including
VxWorks
VxWorks is a real-time operating system (or RTOS) developed as proprietary software by Wind River Systems, a subsidiary of Aptiv. First released in 1987, VxWorks is designed for use in embedded systems requiring real-time, Deterministic system, ...
.
The database is available in real-time, embedded and automotive specialist versions requiring no maintenance,
with the intention to make the product suitable for mission-critical
automotive,
process automation and
telecommunication systems.
Features
Mimer SQL provides support for multiple database application programming interfaces (APIs):
ODBC
In computing, Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) is a standard application programming interface (API) for accessing database management systems (DBMS). The designers of ODBC aimed to make it independent of database systems and operating systems. An ...
,
JDBC
Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) is an application programming interface (API) for the Java (programming language), Java programming language which defines how a client may access a database. It is a Java-based data access technology used for Java ...
,
ADO.NET,
Embedded SQL
Embedded SQL is a method of combining the computing power of a programming language and the database manipulation capabilities of SQL. Embedded SQL statements are SQL statements written inline with the program source code, of the host language. T ...
(C/C++,
Cobol
COBOL (; an acronym for "common business-oriented language") is a compiled English-like computer programming language designed for business use. It is an imperative, procedural, and, since 2002, object-oriented language. COBOL is primarily ...
and Fortran),
Module SQL (C/C++, Cobol, Fortran and Pascal), and the native API's Mimer SQL C API, Mimer SQL Real-Time API, and Mimer SQL Micro C API.
MimerPy is an adapter for Mimer SQL in Python.
The Mimer Provider Manager is an ADO.NET provider dispatcher that uses different plugins to access different underlying ADO.NET providers.
The Mimer Provider Manager makes it possible to write database independent ADO.NET applications.
Mimer SQL mainly uses
optimistic concurrency control (OCC) to manage concurrent transactions.
Mimer SQL is assigned port 1360 in the
Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is a standards organization that oversees global IP address allocation, Autonomous system (Internet), autonomous system number allocation, DNS root zone, root zone management in the Domain Name Syste ...
(IANA) registry.
Etymology
The name "Mimer" is taken from the
Norse mythology
Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology, is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia as the Nordic folklore of the modern period. The ...
, where
Mimer was the giant guarding the well of wisdom, also known as "
Mímisbrunnr". Metaphorically this is what a database system is doing managing data.
See also
*
Werner Schneider the professor who started the development section for the relational database that became Mimer SQL (Swedish article)
References
{{Reflist
External links
Mimer SQLOfficial developer website
Proprietary database management systems
Relational database management systems
Real-time databases
Embedded databases
OpenVMS software