THE DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM CONCEPT - Fundamentals of Database Management Systems - page 62

of several shipping docks, depending on which shipper is
being used. In addition, a bill is automatically generated
and sent to the customer. In fact, Landau bills its more
sophisticated customers electronically using an electronic
data interchange (EDI) system.
There are two underlying relational databases. The
initial order processing is handled using a DB2 database

running on an IBM ''i'' series computer. The orders are
passed on to the Garment Sortation System's Oracle
database running on PCs. The shipping is once again
under the control of the DB2/''i'' series system. The
relational tables include an order table, a customer table,
a style master table, and, of course, a garment table with
2.4million records.

of these technologies were developed in the 1960s and, relative to the other
approaches, are somewhat similar in structure. IBM's Information Management
System (IMS), a DBMS based on the hierarchical approach, was released in 1969.
It was followed in the early 1970s by several network-based DBMSs developed
by such computer manufacturers of the time as UNIVAC, Honeywell, Burroughs,
and Control Data. There was also a network-based DBMS called Integrated Data
Management Store (IDMS) produced by an independent software vendor originally
called Cullinane Systems, which was eventually absorbed into Computer Associates.
These navigational DBMSs, which were suitable only for mainframe computers,
were an elegant solution to the redundancy/integration problem at the time that
they were developed. But they were complex, difficult to work with in many
respects, and, as we said, required a mainframe computer. Now often called ''legacy
systems,'' some of them interestingly have survived to this very day for certain
applications that require a lot of data and fast data response times.
The relational database approach became commercially viable in about 1980.
After several years of user experimentation, it became the preferred DBMS approach
and has remained so ever since. Chapters 4-8 of this topic, as well as portions of later
chapters, are devoted to the relational approach. The object-oriented approach has
proven useful for a variety of niche applications and will be discussed in Chapter 9.
It is interesting to note that some key object-oriented database concepts have found

3.2 I NTEGRATING D ATA

YOUR

TURN

T he need to integrate data is all
around us, even in our personal lives. We integrate data
many times each day without realizing that that's what
we're doing. When we compare the ingredients needed
for a recipe with the food ''inventory'' in our cupboards,
we are integrating data. When we think about buying
something and relate its price to the money we have in our
wallets or in our bank accounts or to the credit remaining
on our credit cards, we are integrating data. When we
compare our schedules with our children's schedules and
perhaps those of others with whom we carpool, we are

integrating data. Can you think of other ways in which
you integrate data on a daily basis?

Q UESTION :
Consider a medical condition for which you or someone
you know is being treated. Describe the different ways
that you integrate data in taking care of that condition.
Hints: Consider your schedule, your doctors' schedules,
the amount of prescription medication you have on
hand, the inventory of medication at the pharmacy you
use, and so on.