Who was First to Use the Relational Model?
In the early 1970’s, IBM’s System R “was intended to provide a high-level, nonnavigational, data-independent interface to many users simultaneously, with high integrity and robustness.” By the end of the 1970’s, IBM had experimented with “a full-function, multi-user version.” One of the main results of that effort was the development of a structured query language, or SQL. At roughly the same time in the 70’s, the product known as Ingres was being developed by scientists at UC Berkeley. Funding for Ingres came from a variety of sources, chief among them being various branches of the military. The Ingres project used its own query language (QUEL), but SQL is what has become the standard. There were some significant differences between System R and Ingres. The source code for System R was kept private, whilst that of Ingres was freely available. System R was meant to be sold; Ingres was freely distributed to the academic community. Additionally, System R, being produced in the commercial
