System R supports a high-level relational user language called SQL which may be used by ad hoc users at terminals or as an embedded data sublanguage in PL/I or COBOL. Host-language programs with embedded SQL statements are processed by the System R precompiler which replaces the SQL statements by calls to a machine-language access module. The precompilation approach removes much of the work of parsing, name binding, and access path selection from the path of a running program, enabling highly efficient support for repetitive transactions. Ad hoc queries are processed by a similar approach of name binding and access path selection which takes place on-line when the query is specified. By providing a flexible spectrum of binding times, System R permits transaction-oriented programs and ad hoc query users to share a database without loss of efficiency. System R is an experimental database management system designed and built by members of the IBM San Jose Research Laboratory as part of a research program on the relational model of data. This paper describes the architecture of System R, and gives some preliminary measurements of system performance in both the ad hoc query and the “canned program” environments.

In a high level query and data manipulation language such as SQL, requests are stated non-procedurally, without reference to access paths. This paper describes how System R chooses access paths for both simple (single relation) and complex queries (such as joins), given a user specification of desired data as a boolean expression of predicates. System R is an experimental database management system developed to carry out research on the relational model of data. System R was designed and built by members of the IBM San Jose Research Laboratory.

System R is a database management system which provides a high level relational data interface. The systems provides a high level of data independence by isolating the end user as much as possible from underlying storage structures. The system permits definition of a variety of relational views on common underlying data. Data control features are provided, including authorization, integrity assertions, triggered transactions, a logging and recovery subsystem, and facilities for maintaining data consistency in a shared-update environment. This paper contains a description of the overall architecture and design of the system. At the present time the system is being implemented and the design evaluated. We emphasize that System R is a vehicle for research in database architecture, and is not planned as a product.

No abstract available.

In April and May, 1959 an exchange of visits by computer experts took place between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. This article will describe the series of negotiations which led up to this exchange and will also describe the visit of the Russian delegation to America. The visit of the U.S. delegation to Russia will be reported separately in a joint article edited by Willis Ware that will appear in the March, 1960 issue of these TRANSACTIONS.

Marginal checking by varying supply voltages for some time has been a means of preventive maintenance for electronic systems. Some important innovations have been employed in the marginal checking system of the AN/FSQ-7 air defense computer to give a more effective high-speed preventive maintenance technique. Completely automatic preventive maintenance testing is discussed incorporating program control of the marginal checking system.

The third Electronic Computer Session at the 1954 IRE National Convention was an experimental discussion on how to make computers more autonomous and how to make them self-repairing. The following pages are a transcript of that session, edited to make it more suitable for print. Each speaker's remarks have been edited by the speaker, which is why it has taken so long for this publication to appear. Some speakers merely corrected their grammar and some went considerably further, but the gist of the original discussion is still there.