Brief History of Oracle

In 1977, Larry Elliso, Bob Minner, and Ed Oates formed a company called Relation Software Incorporated (RSI). This company built an RDBMS called Oracle. Ellison,, Minner, and Otates made a key decision: to develop their RDBMS using C and SQL interface. Soon after, they came out with version 1, a prototype.

In 1979, RSI delivered its first product to customers. The Oracle RDBMS version 2 worked on the Digital PDP-11 running the RSX-11 operating system and was soon ported to the DEM VAX system.

1983 heralded the release of version 3, which touted changes in the SQL language as well as performance enhancements and other improvements. Unlike earlier versions, version 3 was written almost entirely in C. At this point, RSI changed its name to Oracle Corporation.

Oracle version was released in 1984. This version supported both the VAX system and the IBM VM operating system. Version 4 was the first version to incorporate read consistency version 5, introduced in 1985, was a milestone because it introduced client/server computing to the marker with the use of SQL*net. Version 5 was also the first MS-DOS product to break through the 640KB barrier.

In 1988, Oracle presented version 6, which introduced low-level locking as well as a variety of performance improvements and functionality enhancements, including sequence generation and deferred writes. I was introduced to Oracle was days when we even variety of different platforms and operating systems.

In 1991, Oracle introduced the Oracle Parallel Server option on version 6.1 of the Oracle RDBMS on the DEC VAX platform. Soon the Parallel Server option was available on a variety of platforms.

Oracle7, released in 1992, included many architectural changes in the area of memory, CPU, and I/O utilization. Oracle7 is the full-featured RDBMS to which you are accustomed, the one you’ve been using for many years. Oracle7 introduced many advance in the area of ease of use, such as the SQL*DBA tools and database roles.
Finally, in 1997 Oracle introduced Oracle8, which added object extensions as a host of new features and administrative tools.

For more information about the history of Oracle(specifically about the Oracle server), check out the two-part article by Ken Jacobs in the January(February and March/April 1995 issues of Oracle Magazine.

For more information about the Oracle corporation, its products, and about working with Oracle, check out.oracle.com. This Web site contains a wealth of information about Oracle parterships and products as well as information about Oracle Developer Program, which specifically assists developers.