AlthoughIBM’sSystem/RandSQLprovedthatrelationaldatabaseswerefeasible,hardware
technologyatthetimewasnotsufficientlypowerfultomaketheproductappealingtobusinesses.
In1977agroupofengineersinMenloPark,California,formedRelationalSoftware,Inc.,forthe
purposeofbuildinganewrelationaldatabaseproductbasedonSQLthattheycalledOracle.
RelationalSoftwareshippeditsproductin1979,providingthefirstcommerciallyavailable
RDBMS.OneofOracle’sadvantageswasthatitranonDigital’sVAXminicomputersinsteadof
themoreexpensiveIBMmainframes.RelationalSoftwarehassincebeenrenamedOracle
CorporationandisoneoftheleadingvendorsofRDBMSsoftware.
Atroughlythesametime,MichaelStonebraker,EugeneWong,andseveralotherprofessorsatthe
UniversityofCalifornia’sBerkeleycomputerlaboratorieswerealsoresearchingrelational
databasetechnology.TheydevelopedaprototyperelationaldatabasethattheynamedIngres.
IngresincludedadatabaselanguagecalledQueryLanguage(QUEL),whichwasmuchmore
structuredthanSQLbutmadelessuseofEnglish-likestatements.However,itbecameclearthat
SQLwasemergingasthestandarddatabaselanguage,soIngreswaseventuallyconvertedtoan
SQL-basedRDBMS.SeveralprofessorsleftBerkeleyin1980toformRelationalTechnology,
Inc.,andin1981theyannouncedthefirstcommercialversionofIngres.RelationalTechnology
hasgonethroughseveraltransformations.FormerlyownedbyComputerAssociatesInternational,
Inc.,andnowpartofActian,Ingresisstilloneoftheleadingdatabaseproductsintheindustry
today.
Meanwhile,IBMannounceditsownRDBMScalledSQL/DataSystem(SQL/DS)in1981and
beganshippingitin1982.In1983,thecompanyintroducedanewRDBMSproductcalled
Database2(DB2),whichcouldbeusedonIBMmainframesusingIBM’smainstreamMVS
operatingsystem.Firstshippedin1985,DB2hasbecomeIBM’spremierRDBMS,andits
technologyhasbeenincorporatedintotheentireIBMproductline.
Withtheflurryofactivitysurroundingthedevelopmentofdatabaselanguages,theideaof
standardizationwastossedaboutwithinthedatabasecommunity.However,noconsensusor
agreementastowhoshouldsetthestandardorwhichdialectitshouldbebaseduponwasever
reached,soeachvendorcontinuedtodevelopandimproveitsowndatabaseproductinthehope
thatit—and,byextension,itsdialectofSQL—wouldbecometheindustrystandard.
CustomerfeedbackanddemanddrovemanyvendorstoincludecertainelementsintheirSQL
dialects,andintimeanunofficialstandardemerged.Itwasasmallspecificationbytoday’s
standards,asitencompassedonlythoseelementsthatweresimilaracrossthevariousSQL
dialects.However,thisspecification(suchasitwas)didprovidedatabasecustomerswithacore
setofcriteriabywhichtojudgethevariousdatabaseprogramsonthemarket,anditalsogave
usersknowledgethattheycouldleveragefromonedatabaseprogramtoanother.
In1982,theAmericanNationalStandardsInstitute(ANSI)respondedtothegrowingneedforan
officialrelationaldatabaselanguagestandardbycommissioningitsX3organization’sdatabase
technicalcommittee,X3H2,todevelopaproposalforsuchastandard.Aftermucheffort(which
includedmanyimprovementstoSQL),thecommitteerealizedthatitsnewstandardhadbecome
incompatiblewithexistingmajorSQLdialects,andthechangesmadetoSQLdidnotimproveit
significantlyenoughtowarranttheincompatibilities.Asaresult,theyrevertedtowhatwasreally
justaminimalsetof“leastcommondenominator”requirementstowhichdatabasevendorscould
conform.