In the 1960s, the System Development Corporation, one of the world’s first computer software companies and a significant military technology contractor, first used the term “data base” to describe a system to manage United States Air Force personnel. The term “databank” had also been used in the 1960s to describe similar systems, but the public seemed less accepting of that term and eventually adopted the word “database”, which is universally used today. A number of corporations, notably with IBM and Rockwell at the forefront, developed database software throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. MUMPS (also known as M), developed by a team at Massachusetts General Hospital in the late 1960s, was the first programming language developed specifically to make use of database technology. In 1970, the relational database model was born. Although this model was more theoretical than practical at the time, it took hold in the database community as soon as the necessary processing power was available to implement such systems.

Have you ever wondered the name of a movie you watched years ago and although it was on the tip of your tongue the few words of that short title just wouldn’ t come out What about a book you read when you were younger that had a particularly compelling story to tell and despite every effort on your part to relate that story to a friend the...
When you are in a big electronics store buying the latest edition of the iPod how does that store’ s inventory tracking system know you just bought an iPod and not for example a car stereo or a television Let’ s walk through the process of buying an iPod and consider all the implications this has on the inventory database that sits far...
Early Databases In the 1960s the System Development Corporation one of the world’ s first computer software companies and a significant military technology contractor first used the term data base” to describe a system to manage United States Air Force personnel The term databank” had also been used in the 1960s to...
Database Interaction Efficient interaction efficient storage and efficient processing are the three key properties of a successful database platform In this article we explore the first efficient interaction Interaction Category 1 Command Line Clients Many database platforms are shipped with a simple command line utility that allows the user...
Database Overview You have been using databases for a few years and you think you are at the top of your game Or perhaps you have been interested in databases for a while and you think you did like to pursue a career using them but you do not know where to start What is the next step in terms of finding more rewarding education and employment There...
What is a Relational Database Popular modern databases are built on top of an idea called relational algebra” which defines how relations” e g tables and sequences in databases interact within the entire set” of relations This set of relations includes all the relations in a single database Knowing...
Database Concurrency and Reliability Overview Concurrency and reliability have long been hot topics” of discussion among developers and users of distributed systems The fundamental problem can be seen in a simple example as follows Suppose two users are working on the same part of a database at the same time They both UPDATE the...
Distributed Databases Overview Suppose you created a database for a web application a few years ago It started with a handful of users but steadily grew and now its growth is far outpacing the server’ s relatively limited resources You could upgrade the server but that would only stem the effects of the growth for a year or two Also now...