IBM Peterlee Relational Test Vehicle
{{Redirect|PRTV|the Philippine TV channel|PRTV Prime Media}}
PRTV (Peterlee Relational Test Vehicle) was the world's first relational database management system that could handle significant data volumes.
It was a relational query system with powerful query facilities, but very limited update facility and no simultaneous multiuser facility. PRTV was a successor from the very first relational implementation, IS1.
Features
PRTV included several firsts in the relational database area:
- implemented relational optimizer{{cite journal|title=Optimization of a single relational expression in a relational database system|journal= IBM J. Res. Dev.|date=May 1976|first=Patrick A.V.|last=Hall|volume=20|issue=3|pages=244–257|doi=10.1147/rd.203.0244 }}
- implemented cost-based relational optimizer{{cite journal|title=The Peterlee Relational Test Vehicle - A System Overview|journal=IBM Systems Journal|year=1976|first=Stephen|last=Todd|volume=15|issue=4|pages=285–308|doi=10.1147/sj.154.0285}}
- handle tables of 1,000 rows up to 10,000,000 rows{{cite journal|title=Report of the World Health Organisation Information Systems Programme and IBM UK Scientific Centre study on the design of information systems|journal=UKSC Report 105|year=1979|first=R.|last=Storey|author2=W. Trebeljahr |author3=N. Ourusoff |author4=M. Bunzel }}
- user-defined functions (UDFs) within an RDB (also a large suite of built-in functions such as trigonometric and statistical){{Cite book| first=Patrick A.V. | last=Hall|author2=J. Owlett |author3=Stephen Todd | contribution=Relations and Entities| title=IFIP Working Conference on Modelling in Data Base Management Systems 1976| editor-first=G.M.| editor-last= Nijssen| publisher=North Holland| pages=201–220| year=1976}}
- geographic information system based on an RDB (using UDFs such as point-in-polygon).{{cite journal|title=An urban management system — general overview|journal=Rep. No UKSC-53, IBM UK Scientific Center, Peterlee, England|date=May 1974|first=B.K.|last=Aldred|author2=B.S. Smedley}}
PRTV was based on a relational algebra, Information Systems Base Language (ISBL) and followed the relational model very strictly. Even features such as user-defined functions were formalized within that model.{{Cite conference |first=Patrick A.V. |last=Hall |author2=P. Hitchcock |author3=Stephen Todd |title=An algebra of relations for machine computation |book-title=Conference record of the second ACM Symposium on the Principles of Programming Languages |publisher=ACM |place=Palo Alto, California |pages=225–232 |date=January 1975}} The PRTV team also introduced surrogates to the relational model to help formalize relational update operations; and a formalisation for updating through views.{{Cite book| first=Stephen | last=Todd| contribution=Automatic Constraint Maintenance and Updating Defined Relations| title=Proceedings of the IFIP Congress 1977| editor-first=Bruce| editor-last=Gilchrist| publisher=North Holland| place=Toronto, Canada| pages=145–148| date=August 1977}} However neither of these was implemented within PRTV. PRTV emphatically did not implement NULL values, because this conception was introduced only in 1979.{{Cite journal|title=Extending the Database Relational Model to Capture More Meaning|journal=ACM Transactions on Database Systems|date=December 1979|first=Edgar F.|last=Codd|s2cid=17517212|volume=4|issue=4|pages=397–434|doi=10.1145/320107.320109|citeseerx=10.1.1.508.5701}}
PRTV was itself never available as a product, but the Urban Management System{{cite journal|title=An urban management system — general overview|journal=Rep. No UKSC-53, IBM UK Scientific Center, Peterlee, England|date=May 1974|first=Barry K.|last=Aldred|author2=B.S. Smedley}} built on it was available as a limited IBM product.
Implementation
PRTV was written in a mixture of languages. The higher layers were written in MP/3 and PL/I,{{rp|297}} whereas the lower layers were written in PL/I and System/370 assembler language.{{rp|301}} MP/3 was a macro processing language developed at Peterlee from 1973 onwards, similar to ML/I or TRAC.{{cite book|author=A. J. Cole|title=Macro Processors|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Sz44AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA133|date=26 November 1981|publisher=CUP Archive|isbn=978-0-521-28560-5|pages=133–159|chapter=MP/3 - a top end macro processor with system facilities}} PRTV ran on System/370 IBM mainframes.{{rp|301}}
References
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ibm Peterlee Relational Test Vehicle (Prtv)}}
Peterlee Relational Test Vehicle (PRTV)