Oracle Rdb is a
relational database management system for the
OpenVMS operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also i ...
. It was originally released by
Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC ), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president un ...
(DEC) in 1984 as VAX Rdb/VMS.
Product history
Rdb was a component of the ''VAX Information Architecture'', and was designed to interoperate with other Digital database tools and application frameworks such as the
Application Control Management System
Application Control Management System (Application Control and Management System) (ACMS) is a transaction processing monitor software system for computers running the OpenVMS operating system.
ACMS was developed by Digital Equipment Corporation ...
,
Datatrieve
DATATRIEVE is a database query and report writer tool originally from Digital Equipment Corporation. It runs on the OpenVMS operating system, as well as several PDP-11 operating systems. DATATRIEVE's command structure is nearly plain English, a ...
and the Common Data Dictionary.
It originally provided a proprietary query interface known as the Relational Data Operator (RDO), but later gained support for
ANSI SQL.
In 1994 DEC sold the Rdb division to
Oracle Corporation where it was rebranded Oracle Rdb. As of 2020, Oracle is still actively developing Rdb, with over half of the codebase developed under Oracle's ownership. Version 7.0 ran on OpenVMS for
VAX
VAX (an acronym for Virtual Address eXtension) is a series of computers featuring a 32-bit instruction set architecture (ISA) and virtual memory that was developed and sold by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in the late 20th century. The V ...
and
Alpha, version 7.1 on Alpha only, and versions 7.2 to 7.4 on Alpha and
IA-64 (Itanium).
Rdb featured one of the first
cost-based optimizers, and after acquisition Oracle introduced a cost-based optimizer in its regular
Oracle RDBMS
Oracle Database (commonly referred to as Oracle DBMS, Oracle Autonomous Database, or simply as Oracle) is a multi-model database management system produced and marketed by Oracle Corporation.
It is a database commonly used for running online ...
product.
On March 22, 2011, Oracle announced it had decided to end all software development on the
Itanium
Itanium ( ) is a discontinued family of 64-bit Intel microprocessors that implement the Intel Itanium architecture (formerly called IA-64). Launched in June 2001, Intel marketed the processors for enterprise servers and high-performance comput ...
, and that Oracle Rdb 7.3 would be the last major version released by Oracle. Due to a
lawsuit filed by HP against Oracle, Oracle was ordered to continue porting its software to Itanium computers for as long as HP (now
Hewlett-Packard Enterprise) sells Itanium computers.
Despite the announcement that 7.3 would be the last major release, Oracle released version 7.4.1.0 of Rdb in August 2020 for OpenVMS on both Alpha and Itanium.
In November 2020, Oracle announced that they are in the process of porting Rdb 7.4 to the
x86-64
x86-64 (also known as x64, x86_64, AMD64, and Intel 64) is a 64-bit version of the x86 instruction set, first released in 1999. It introduced two new modes of operation, 64-bit mode and compatibility mode, along with a new 4-level paging ...
port of OpenVMS.
Data access
Interactive access to the Oracle Rdb can be by
SQL (Structured Query Language), RDO (Relational Database Operator), or both.
High level languages usually access Oracle-Rdb by:
#embedding RDO statements in the source file then running it through a precompiler
#:(example: "file.RCO" is pre-compiled into "file.COB")
#embedding SQL statements in the source file then running it through a precompiler
#:(example: "file.SCO" is pre-compiled into "file.COB")
#placing the SQL statements in a file external to the source code; this separate file is converted to object code by the "SQL Module Language" compiler, and the source code then references these SQL statements and, after compilation, the two are joined by the OpenVMS
linker
Linker or linkers may refer to:
Computing
* Linker (computing), a computer program that takes one or more object files generated by a compiler or generated by an assembler and links them with libraries, generating an executable program or shar ...
.
example: $ SQL$MOD file_bas.sqlmod → file_bas.obj
$ BASIC file.bas → file.obj
$ LINK file.obj,file_bas.obj → file.exe
A variation of example 3 allows "Dynamic SQL" to be created in the source code, and then used to communicate with Rdb via a structure known as SQLDA (SQL Descriptor Area).
On OpenVMS systems, Oracle Rdb is a popular (although expensive) upgrade path for applications written using
Record Management Services
Record Management Services (RMS) are procedures in the VMS, RSTS/E, RT-11 and RSX-11M operating systems that programs may call to process files and records within files.
Its file formats and procedures are similar to of those in some IBM acces ...
(RMS) files.
Architecture
Rdb is built on top of a low-level database kernel named KODA, which handles functionality such as locking, journaling, and buffering of data. The KODA kernel is shared with Oracle's
CODASYL
CODASYL, the Conference/Committee on Data Systems Languages, was a consortium formed in 1959 to guide the development of a standard programming language that could be used on many computers. This effort led to the development of the programming l ...
DBMS (originally known as VAX DBMS) which is a
network model
The network model is a database model conceived as a flexible way of representing objects and their relationships. Its distinguishing feature is that the schema, viewed as a graph in which object types are nodes and relationship types are arcs, ...
database.
Rdb on other platforms
VAX Rdb/ELN was the name of Digital's relational database for the
VAXELN
VAXELN (typically pronounced "VAX-elan") is a discontinued real-time operating system for the VAX family of computers produced by the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) of Maynard, Massachusetts.
As with RSX-11 and VMS, Dave Cutler was the ...
operating system. Despite sharing the Rdb name, and being announced at the same time, Rdb/ELN was not based on Rdb/VMS, or vice versa. Rdb/ELN was created by
Jim Starkey
Jim Starkey (born January 6, 1949 in Illinois) is a database architect responsible for developing InterBase, the first relational database to support multi-versioning,Babcock, Charles"MySQL Database to Get Replication Monitoring, Multiversioning ...
, and was the first commercially available database to use
Multiversion concurrency control
Multiversion concurrency control (MCC or MVCC), is a concurrency control method commonly used by database management systems to provide concurrent access to the database and in programming languages to implement transactional memory.
Description ...
.
Ports of Rdb previously existed or were planned for
Tru64
Tru64 UNIX is a discontinued 64-bit UNIX operating system for the Alpha instruction set architecture (ISA), currently owned by Hewlett-Packard (HP). Previously, Tru64 UNIX was a product of Compaq, and before that, Digital Equipment Corporation (DE ...
and
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...
Windows NT
Windows NT is a proprietary graphical operating system produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released on July 27, 1993. It is a processor-independent, multiprocessing and multi-user operating system.
The first version of Win ...
. Demand for the
Tru64
Tru64 UNIX is a discontinued 64-bit UNIX operating system for the Alpha instruction set architecture (ISA), currently owned by Hewlett-Packard (HP). Previously, Tru64 UNIX was a product of Compaq, and before that, Digital Equipment Corporation (DE ...
version was so low that support was dropped. The Windows NT port was never released as Oracle could not obtain support on the
BLISS
BLISS is a system programming language developed at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) by W. A. Wulf, D. B. Russell, and A. N. Habermann around 1970. It was perhaps the best known system language until C debuted a few years later. Since then, C b ...
compiler necessary for this platform. In order to port Rdb to these platforms, an abstraction layer named the Common Operating System Interface (COSI) was implemented to isolate the database from the underlying operating system.
Digital provided a relational database for their
Ultrix operating system named ULTRIX/SQL, but it was based on
Ingres instead of Rdb.
References
External links
Oracle-Rdb home page
Oracle Rdb listserver discussion
{{Oracle
Oracle software
OpenVMS software
Oracle acquisitions