Implementation of a portable database management system

Abstract

A solution to the problem of database software portability and interchange has been achieved by the implementation of the Automated Information Management (AIM) system. AIM, a CODASYL-type database management system, is written entirely in a high-level industry-wide standard language. The technique of implementation is carefully designed to eliminate any machine dependencies such as word size or internal data representation. Thus, a program written using AIM will run on any machine supporting a commonly available subset of ANSI 1974 COBOL.The specifications of the Data Base Task Group, published in 1969 and 1971, and the later enhancements by the Data Definition Language Committee, published in 1973, have gained increasing acceptance by the data processing community. Although various computer manufacturers have introduced database management systems based on these proposals, each of these systems represent mutually non-compatible versions of the standard. The approach taken in the development of AIM has overcome this problem and made CODASYL database facilities available to a broader class of machines than ever before.