At this stage, Oracle's annual sales have exceeded $10 million. This level is about the same as the top successful software companies in the personal computer industry.

But let's not forget that Oracle Database is primarily for large customers, and the profits are far greater than those on the PC platform.

There is no doubt that Oracle, which was founded two years earlier than Tang Huan's Zheru, is fully qualified to be crowned a "successful enterprise".

In the early years, though, Oracle was walking on thin ice like any other small startup. This can be seen in the two changes in its company name.

Oracle's rise, in addition to relying on the extraordinary abilities of its founders, is largely due to the rise of relational databases.

The need for data collection, storage, and analysis has existed since ancient times, the most famous example of which is the census in the United States, but the tools used were punched cards and card tabulation machines until 1952.

With the rise and maturity of computer application technology, data processing has finally entered a new stage of development, and the database management system has come into being, forming a huge market with immeasurable commercial value.

In order to computer process the data, it is necessary to abstract it mathematically, so that different structural models can be summarized.

For example, in a mesh database, as the name suggests, the correlation between data is as criss-crossed as it is in the real world.

The first commercial mesh database product was the IDS on a mainframe platform launched by General Electric in 1964. Other well-known implementations include HP's IMAGE, Cullinet's IDMS, etc.

The most commercially successful of these is IDMS, which has generated more than $100 million in annual sales for Cullinet in the past two years.

In the case of layered databases, the associations between data are further abstracted into models like genealogies.

The most well-known commercial product of layered databases. It was the IMS introduced by IBM in the late 1960s.

It doesn't matter if it's a mesh database. Or a layered database. As the database grows, the connections between the data will be so complex that even the administrator who created the database in the first place will be confused, which will make it extremely difficult to maintain.

Fortunately, at this time, the theory of relational databases emerged.

In 1970, IBM researcher Edgar Frank Codd - Edgar Codd. Frank. Kede published a paper entitled "ARelationalModelofDataforLargeSharedDatabanks" - "Relational Model of Large Shared Databases", which laid the theoretical foundation of relational models and was praised by both academia and industry.

To this end, Edgar. Frank. Cord is known as the "father of relational databases". and received the Turing Award in 1981.

When the academic debate over which is better or worse is better than the relational database, the latter wins and ends, and the relational database is turned from a theoretical achievement into a software implementation topic, which is immediately placed in front of researchers.

Honeywell, Honeywell's first commercial success with relational databases, introduced MDRS in 1976, but the market performance was mediocre.

As one of the first companies to come up with a relational model, IBM certainly didn't lag behind, and it built a team of 40 people to develop a relational database and named it the "R" system. That is, the meaning is derived from the first letter of the English word "relation".

In 1974, IBM's R&D team won its first battle. Successfully developed a structured query language for relational databases, namely SQL.

By 1977, the "R" system was ready for operation.

But IBM, which was heavily bureaucratic, made the same mistake of selling its layered database IMS at the time, bringing a lot of money to the company, so it naturally suppressed the commercial operation of the "R" system.

As a result, the outside world only sees the R-system R&D personnel frequently publish academic papers, but does not see IBM actively carry out marketing activities.

In this way, IBM gave two other relational databases, Ingres and Oracle, a chance to get ahead.

Ingres was developed by a group of government-funded professors at the University of California, Berkeley. In order to develop Zheru's own database EBase, Tang Huan poached some people from among them.

The R&D team at Ingres and the "R" R&D team at IBM are familiar with each other, so they often communicate with each other and have developed a set of relational database language QUEL similar to SQL.

The two groups also made the mistake of being a literati and quarreled from time to time, accusing each other of copying their own solutions.

In the end, the two sides simply parted ways and fought hard.

In 1980, several members of the Ingres R&D team established Relational Technologies, Inc. (RTI) to commercialize the Ingres database.

ORACLE'S PREDECESSOR, SDL, WAS FOUNDED TO MAKE IT EASIER TO MAKE EXTRA MONEY.

At the time, Larry. Ellison's company had a lot of work to do to develop a device for data storage and retrieval.

So, Larry. Ellison successfully lobbied the company for business outsourcing and worked with former colleague Bob Brown. Miner, Ed. Oates co-founded SDL and took over the job, making the three of them make a lot of money.

After this, Larry. Ellison left the company to focus on his own SDL.

HE ALSO MOVED HIS OFFICE TO THE HEART OF SILICON VALLEY AND RENAMED IT RSI, A CONNECTED SOFTWARE COMPANY, TO REFLECT THE RELATIONAL DATABASE ORACLE THE COMPANY WAS DEVELOPING.

Unlike Ingres, which has its own relational database language, Quel, Oracle borrows from IBM's SQL, and Tang Huan's EBase has a similar choice.

As a pioneer in the commercialization of relational databases. ORACLE DATABASE NATURALLY GETS SOME FIRST-MOVER ADVANTAGE.

Like what. The CIA approached the door. Name to buy this product. Meanwhile, Larry. Ellison also found another big client, the Naval Intelligence Agency.

THE FIRST VERSION OF ORACLE WAS RUN ON DEC'S PDP-11, WHILE THE CIA AND NAVAL INTELLIGENCE REQUIRED VERSIONS WERE IBM'S MAINFRAME AND DEC'S VAX.

NEITHER OF THESE PRODUCTS IS CHEAP, AND RSI DOESN'T HAVE THE FINANCIAL RESOURCES TO BUY IT, BUT PORTING ORACLE CAN'T DO WITHOUT THIS ENVIRONMENT. Ellison and the others could only beg their grandfather to borrow it from their grandmother everywhere, and even did not hesitate to use rogue means. THE SECOND VERSION OF ORACLE IS FINALLY COMPLETE.

HOWEVER, AT THIS TIME, ORACLE STILL HAS A LOT OF PROBLEMS SUCH AS INCORRECT SEARCH RESULTS, AND EVEN DATA LOSS.

At this time, Larry. Ellison's personal abilities were evident, and he simply delivered this immature product to the CIA and Naval Intelligence, making them his fault finders.

Of course, RSI's service attitude is definitely good enough, always on hand, and if there is a mistake, it will be corrected.

It is with this clever sales pitch and good service that RSI opens up the market for relational databases. Started commercializing Ingres' RTI. It is characterized by excellent technology and excellent quality.

In this way, RSI and RTI are in an incompatible competition.

Compared to those professors at RTI. Larry. Ellison's tactics were clearly more sophisticated.

Since the names of RSI and RTI are very close, it happens from time to time that RTI checks are mistakenly sent to RSI. Ellison dragged the checks as much as he could, so as to add unnecessary financial pressure to his opponent and make RTI complain.

In this competition, RSI has the upper hand. ELLISON ALSO BEGAN TO HAVE THE ABILITY TO REPLACE ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE WITH C, REWROTE THE THIRD VERSION OF THE DATABASE, AND CHANGED THE COMPANY'S NAME TO ORACLE.

The competition between RSI and RTI represents the relational database market pattern in the field of minicomputers and mainframes, and under the impetus of Tang Huan, the microcomputer database market has gradually taken shape, showing coveted business value.

For example, EBase, as a leader, contributed $50 million in sales to Zheru in 1981 alone due to its electronic, powerful, and easy-to-use characteristics advertised as "E".

Ashton-Tate's DBase, backed by the IBM-PC platform, seems to be competing with Zheru's EBase, but it does not yet have the characteristics of a relational database, and it is not qualified to be a competitor to EBase.

Seeing that the relational database market was booming, IBM was dumbfounded, and hurriedly caught up, and after rigorous testing the "R" system, it launched its own commercial relational database SQL/DS at the end of 1981.

In 1983, it launched a more comprehensive industrial-grade database DB2, which was accepted by major customers, but also reversed a lot of its previous disadvantages.

EBase, ORACLE, and DB2 all support SQL, which virtually makes this database language the de facto industry standard, and other relational database products will have to move closer sooner or later.

However, the current relational database vendors are not aware of this, and other databases are trying to increase the types of computer platforms they can support, except for EBase and DB2.

FOR EXAMPLE, ORACLE HAS OFFICIALLY SUPPORTED FANGYUAN COMPUTER AND IBM-PC SINCE THE FOURTH VERSION, AND HAS TOUTED THE PORTABILITY, CONNECTIVITY, AND COMPATIBILITY OF ITS OWN PRODUCTS.

PORTABILITY REFERS TO THE SUPPORT OF MULTIPLE COMPUTER HARDWARE PLATFORMS, WHILE CONNECTIVITY REFERS TO THE INSTALLATION OF ORACLE DATABASES ON DIFFERENT COMPUTERS THAT CAN BE CONNECTED FOR DATA COMMUNICATION.

As for compatibility, it means that it is compatible with DB2 and EBase, which also use SQL. This publicity stunt is inevitably suspected of hugging the thighs and getting naked.

WHEN TANG HUAN SLIPPED TO THE FRONT OF ORACLE'S BOOTH, HE HAPPENED TO SEE LARRY. ELLISON CLEVERLY EXPLAINS THE BENEFITS OF ORACLE DATABASES, AMONG OTHER THINGS.

"This Larry. Ellison, it's a lot like Jobs. COMDEX is getting more and more lively. AFTER TANG HUAN JOKED, HE ASKED CASUALLY, "BY THE WAY, ORACLE IS THE FIRST TIME TO APPEAR, RIGHT?" ”

"I have the impression that way." Charles. Simeone nodded.

"ORACLE WAS ORIGINALLY FOCUSED ON PURSUING LARGE CUSTOMERS, BUT NOW IT HAS BEGUN TO PAY ATTENTION TO THE PROMOTION TO THE PUBLIC, AND IT SEEMS THAT THE MARKET POSITIONING HAS CHANGED." Tang Huan, thoughtfully, analyzed.

"IT WASN'T UNTIL THE THIRD RELEASE THAT ORACLE STARTED SUPPORTING TRANSACTION. From this, it is not difficult to deduce that their technological research and development is very advanced. "Look at Larry. Ellison was talking and gleefully performing, and Charles. Simeone was dismissive.

The so-called transaction is the basic unit of recovery and concurrency control. To put it simply, actions that are grouped together are either completed or undone.

For example, the transfer operation from account A to account B consists of at least two steps, that is, subtracting a number from account A and adding a number to account B.

This operation must be completed in its entirety, and if there is an unexpected power outage, system downtime, software crash or other catastrophic failure between the first and second steps, it is also necessary to ensure that all failed operations can be undone. Otherwise, the database will be in trouble.

WHEN EBase was introduced, it has been supporting transactional features since 1980, at least a year and a half ahead of Oracle.

It is based on these factors that Charles. Simeone was proud, and he couldn't get used to Larry. Ellison's pompous showmanship.

At this time, Larry. ELLISON SAID EXCITEDLY, AND WITH A WAVE OF HIS HAND, SEVERAL ORACLE EMPLOYEES BROUGHT OUT AN OVERSIZED ADVERTISING BOARD FROM THE BACK AND PLACED IT IN FRONT OF THE STAGE, CAUSING AN UPROAR.

Tang Huan stared at it and saw that in the middle was a jet fighter representing ORACLE, on the left was a parrot representing Ashton Tate, and on the right was a phoenix representing Zheru - Zerone's logo was originally composed of the numbers "Zero" and "One", and later his subordinates gradually evolved into the Oriental Divine Bird - Phoenix due to their overwhelming sense of honor and catering to Tang Huan's preferences.

The jet fighter fired several missiles at the Parrot and the Phoenix, each of which symbolized the Oracle Database's ability to surpass DBase and EBase.

"What arrogance!" Charles. Simone's face turned blue with anger, and Tang Huan looked at the smug Larry playfully. Ellison, the other party seems to be enjoying the sensation he has created.

There was a commotion at the scene, and I don't know where to throw a few bottles of Coke, which smashed heavily on the advertising board, and suddenly there was a commotion.

Seeing this scene, the crowd became more and more noisy, causing the exhibition security guards to gather nervously to maintain order.

Larry. Ellison wiped the drink splashed on his face and roared angrily, "Who did that?" Have the ability to stand up! ”

Tang Huanze and Charles. Simone and the other subordinates looked at each other, and said in their hearts who is so quick to enmity and hatred, it's really exciting! (To be continued.) )