DB2 25th Birthday
From IBM Database Magazine Wiki
IBM DB2 Turns 25!
June 6, 2008
On June 7, 1983, IBM issued a press release announcing a "relational data base management system [RDBMS] for large enterprises", and so began the life of Database 2, now simply called DB2. Tomorrow we celebrate the 25th anniversary of DB2. Here are some of the key happenings that led not only to the birth of DB2 but to the formation of the RDBMS industry as a whole:
-- In 1970, E. F. Codd of IBM Research published a paper that led to a new way for computers to manage information. His paper, "A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks," proposed a new architecture for storing, managing and interacting with digital data. This new relational model freed application developers from having to know details about the data being managed.
-- Four years later, IBMers Don Chamberlin and Ray Boyce published "SEQUEL: A Structured English Query Language," which became the basis for the SQL language standard.
-- A series of research projects have been a steady source of technology for DB2 since the beginning. The first IBM implementation of the relational model described in Ted Codd's research paper was called System R. A project called ARIES delivered row-level locking technology used throughout the database industry today. Cost-based query optimization has been an area of intense effort and innovation ever since the System R days. The R Star project extended the relational model to distributed system environments. The Starburst project focused on making the relational model extensible to handle new forms of information and new kinds of optimization strategies. The Garlic project brought an emphasis on data federation, allowing data in diverse systems, not just DB2 systems, to be managed together. Garlic led to products like DataJoiner of the past and the federation capability in today's IBM Information Server.
-- The first IBM product to be implemented from the System R research project was the RDBMS integrated into the System/38 server in 1980. In 1982, the SQL/DS product was delivered on the mainframe operating systems VM and VSE. SQL/DS, too, was based on System R. DB2 (Database 2) was first delivered on MVS in 1983. The database manager in OS/2 Extended Edition in 1987 was the first IBM RDBMS on distributed systems. SQL/400 for the AS/400 server emerged in 1988. New DB2 editions were delivered on AIX (1993), HP-UX and Solaris (1994), Windows (1995), and Linux (1999). Today, IBM offers DB2 9.5 for Linux, UNIX and Windows, DB2 9 for z/OS, and DB2 for i 6.1 for the IBM i server.
Included below are that historic press release and links to more information on DB2 and IBM Information Management software.
Happy Birthday DB2!
Additional Information
1. The June 7, 1983, [http://i.cmpnet.com/ibmdatabasemag/pdfs/DB2_Press_Release6-7-83.pdf press release] about DB2 for MVS
2. More information on DB2
3. The DB2 zone at IBM Database Magazine
4. More information on IBM Information Management software
5. The Information Management zone in IBM developerWorks
-- Jeff Jones, IT Analyst Relations, IBM Information Management Software
