STATEMENT OF DIRECTION: ORACLE7 ON DOS

From: Shiraz Kanga <skanga_at_us.oracle.com>
Date: Mon, 17 May 1993 20:23:47 GMT
Message-ID: <1993May17.202347.21015_at_oracle.us.oracle.com>


                

Over the past few days there has been a lot of talk / speculation in this newsgroup about the Oracle7 technology (with its various distributed and parallel options) being ported to the DOS operating system so I thought it would be useful to post Oracle's statement of direction on this port over here.

PS. For the folks looking for the Windows NT statement of direction the part no is included at the bottom of this post so you could easily get it from your sales rep.

Hope this helps,

shiraz

                STATEMENT OF DIRECTION: ORACLE7 ON DOS
                --------------------------------------

The current installed base of ORACLE for DOS users is very large. Many companies now use the DOS workstation as a low cost, productive standalone development environment. Oracle is committed to providing a strategy where standalone database users have a migration strategy.

Oracle is planning on porting its newest relational database management system to the DOS environment. Oracle initially ported its RDBMS to DOS more than 7 years ago, and version 6 of the RDBMS is currently offered on the DOS platform.

The memory and performance needs of ORACLE7 mandate that ORACLE7 be implemented on nothing less than a robust 32-bit operating environment. Desktop has evaluated a port of ORACLE7 to the current 16-bit DOS operating environment and has determined that such a port would not be useable by developers and users wanting a standalone ORACLE7 DBMS. As a result, the planned ORACLE7 release for DOS will be based on, and dependent on Microsoft's upcoming release of 32-bit DOS, commonly referred to as the Chicago project.

Networking with DOS

DOS is the best connected operating system that Oracle supports. Oracle currently supports nine different protocol environments on DOS. This will allow ORACLE7 for DOS to partcipate in virtually any multi-site distributed database environment.

ORACLE7 Technology

Shared SQL.
Shared SQL significantly reduces RDBMS memory utilization and application startup time by allowing many users to share a single copy of parsed SQL statements and procedures. Systems running OLTP applications supporting many users repeatedly executing the same set of SQL statements can experience a reduction in RDBMS memory utilization of 50% or more. Application startup time is also reduced because statements to be executed are already prepared for use.

Cost-based optimizer.
In a server environment, the cost based optimizer would normally gather stastics about the distribution of data throughout the RDBMS, and use those statistics to setermine the most efficient data access path for SQL queries. Because ORACLE7 for DOS will be a standalone DBMS, intended for development work, or use by a single local user, the cost based optimizer would not be useful, hence will not be supported.

Distributed Database Capabilities.
ORACLE7 DBMS for DOS will provide advanced distributed database capabilities that will make access to remote databases tranparent to the user. Thus, ORACLE7 for DOS will eliminate the need for costly custom programming formerly needed to execute transaction updates among distributed databases.

Transactions containing multiple data manipulations will be executed at multiple sites from one initiating transaction. Automatic two-phase commit logic to protect against system and network failures is provided with full transparency to user applications. Application programs use SQL COMMIT statements to commit distributed transactions, and need not be concerned with the physical location of data, deadlock recovery, or other complexities of two-phase commit coordination.

In such a distributed environment, ORACLE7 for DOS will be able to act as an initiating node for a distributed transaction. Because it will not operate as a host platform, ORACLE7 for DOS will not accept a distributed transaction intitiated by a remote database.

Stored Triggers & Procedures.
Application developers can use the full sophistication of Oracle's advanced PL/SQL language technology to define database procedures for enhanced data integrity, security, and improved performance. Procedures containing one or more SQL statements together with PL/SQL procedural language extensions are stored in a shared, compiled format within the database. Procedures can also access global variables which persist for the duration of a user's session.

Declarative Database Enforced Integrity
Database administrators can keep data consistent throughout the RDBMS by placing rules, including primary and foreign keys, inside rows and columns of database tables. ORACLE7 for DOS will support the full complement of ISO/ANSI SQL standard declarative data integrity rules for both entity and referential integrity.

Security Roles.
ORACLE7 for DOS introduces a new security architecture based on roles, which are named collections of privileges. Database administrators will be able to assign security clearance to user work groups, then assign individual users to those work groups. Roles make security administration much more manageable and, hence, secure.

Multi-Threaded Server.
The multi threaded implements logins as threads under a master process. This architecture allows a server database to use less memory while simultaneously offering higher performance. As ORACLE7 for DOS will be a standalone DBMS only, there will be no benefit to a multi-threaded implementation on DOS, so the multi-threaded server technology will not be a part of ORACLE7 for DOS.

Database Snapshots.
Mirrored databases require a technology referred to as database snapshots. The administrator of a larger server database might want to have a mirrored server always up and on line in case of a problem with the primary server. In that event, the mirrored server would be brought on line and offer seemless database access to the users of that system. Bacause DOS will be a standalone database, the need for a mirrored database on line does not exist. Database snashots will not be supported with ORACLE7 for DOS.

Parallel Server.
In a loosely coupled multiprocessing environment, ORACLE7 parallel server technology allows many DBMS instances to execute and for those instances to share common data. As DOS is not a multiprocessing environment of any kind, the parallel server technology will not be implemented on ORACLE7 for DOS.

National Language Support

ORACLE7 for DOS will support the following languages, in addition to English, for the reporting of status and error messages. Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish, and Swedish. These features will allow developers and users to work in their native language, and also adapts to their specific cultural conventions for sorting and displaying data.

Preliminary System Requirements

Microsoft 32-bit DOS
IBM or Compaq 386 or 486 PC (or 100% compatible PC) 10MB RAM minimum for database and OS
30MB hard disk
LAN hardware and software if using in a distributed environment

Availability

ORACLE7 for DOS is slated for release within a quarter of the availability of Microsoft's 32-bit DOS operating system.

Alternatives

For alternative ORACLE7 development environments for the Intel environment, users should refer to the following statements of direction:

ORACLE7 Server for Windows NT Statement of Direction

      part # 90972-0692
ORACLE7 Server for OS/2 Statement of Direction

      part # 91284-1192

-- 
Shiraz Kanga (skanga_at_oracle.com) Tel: (415)506-5412 Fax: (415)506-7822
Analyst -- Desktop Tools Group -- Worldwide Technical Support -- 3OP11
Oracle Corporation 500 Oracle Pkwy, MS 659311, Redwood Shores CA 94065
"I work for Oracle - I speak and type (over here at least) for myself"
Received on Mon May 17 1993 - 22:23:47 CEST

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