Re: >Oracle's future

In article <1994Mar22.223454.2137_at_colesmyer.com.au> amay_at_colesmyer.com.au (Andrew May CMIS) writes:

> >I would just like to point out several things:
> > 1, DB2/6000 is faster than Oracle v7, if Oracle doesn't use discrete trans.
>
> You would hope that IBM's proprietary database on their proprietary box
> would run faster than any other. The figures I got from IBM are:
>
> TPC-A on RISC system 6000 model 580
> DB2/6000 - 125.64 TPSA
> Oracle 7 - 157.20 TPSA
>
> Note: Oracle used discrete transactions to get their result.
> >
> > 2, Oracle v6 had 26 maintenance releases. Oracle v7, on AIX, has had 16
> > maintenance releases already. Does that sound stable to you?
>

Oracle v6 did not have 26 maintenence releases. Depending on what country you're in, Oracle v6 started shipping between 6.0.24 & 6.0.27. I don't think very many customers upgraded v6 more than a few times. v6.0.36 was a merge between vanilla v6 and v6 with the parallel server option, and as far as I know there has been one maintenence release: 6.0.37.

Oracle7 on AIX does not have 16 maintenence releases already. We started shipping Oracle7 around release 10 or 11.

> I don't know how many IBM would release, but I get the impression that most
> mainframe sites only upgrade once/year. Would you want to wait 12 months
> for an enhancement or bug fix? Perhaps IBM products are "bug free". In any
> case, you only take upgrades when you are ready. You don't have to apply
> 26 maintenance releases one at a time.
> >
> >Pat Gainer
> >gainer_at_almaden.ibm.com
>
> One advantage of Oracle 7 is a large amount of third party software and
> services support. Since DB2/6000 only went production in late November, there
> is only a small amount of third party software and services available as far
> as I am aware.
>

In fact, the only way to access DB2/6000 is from a 3GL language. There are no development tools.

> DB2 runs on MVS, DB2/6000 runs on AIX and OS/2. They are porting to HP.
> Oracle runs on all these and many more. Oracle was production on AIX and
> OS/2 long before DB2/6000 was.
>
> Oracle supports Parallel server on AIX (HACMP). Although IBM are planning
> this, I don't think it is available yet for DB2/6000.
>
> I also understand DB2/6000 is a subset of DB2/MVS.
>

If your an IBM customer, you can order the 217 page "FRED" document (part no SC26-331-00), which describes the differences between DB2/MVS and DB2/6000. Ask yourself why two supposedly compatible databases from the same company would merit a 217-page book listing their differences.

> I hope this clears up a few things.
>
> Regards,
> Andrew.
> --
> --------------------------------------*---------------------------------------
> N. Andrew May. | Database Administrator
> Coles-Myer Ltd | These are my humble opinions alone.
> 53 Hoddle Street, Collingwood, | Tel: +61 3 483 7389. Fax: 483 7381

--

Magnus Lonnroth
Tech.Sales & Consultant
Oracle Sweden
Mail: mloennro_at_se.oracle.com