InterBase

InterBase is a light-weight, embeddable, cross-platform Relational Database Management System. InterBase is characterized by its small footprint, minimal administration and built-in data security control.

History

InterBase was originally developed by Jim Starkey in 1984 as a RDBMS utilizing multi-generational architecture. InterBase was acquired by Borland Inc. in 1991. In 2000, an open-source DBMS called FireBird was forked from InterBase. In 2008, InterBase, along with other development tools, are purchased by Embarcadero Technologies, Inc.

System Architecture

Shared-Everything Embedded

InterBase can be used as a server which adopts Shared-Everything architecture, or as an embedded library.

Foreign Keys

Supported

InterBase supports foreign keys and creates indices for foreign keys by default. Referential integrity is enforced for foreign keys.

Indexes

B+Tree

InterBase uses a variant of B-tree for index structure. Indices are automatically created for PRIMARY KEY, FOREIGN KEY and UNIQUE columns.

Data Model

Relational

InterBase is a relational database management system (RDBMS) and it complies with SQL-92 standard.

Concurrency Control

Multi-version Concurrency Control (MVCC)

InterBase is the first DBMS that implements Multi-Version Concurrency Control (MVCC). MVCC is referred to as Multi-Generational Architecture in InterBase.

Isolation Levels

Read Committed Snapshot Isolation

Three isolation levels are supported: SNAPSHOT, SNAPSHOT TABLE STABILITY, READ COMMITTED.

Joins

Nested Loop Join Sort-Merge Join

InterBase uses an optimizer to estimate costs of different joining orders and to generate data retrieval plan. Merge-Sort Join and Nested Loop Join are supported. InterBase also allows users to specify customized plan by using PLAN clause.

Compression

Run-Length Encoding Prefix Compression

In index, data values are compressed via pre and postfix compression.

InterBase Logo
Website

http://www.embarcadero.com/products/interbase

Developer

Embarcadero Technologies, Inc.

Country of Origin

US

Start Year

1984

Former Name

Groton Database Systems, Yaffil

Acquired By

Ashton-Tate, Borland

Project Type

Commercial

Written in

C

Supported languages

C, C++, Delphi, PHP, Ruby

Operating Systems

Android, iOS, Linux, OS X, Solaris, Windows

Licenses

Proprietary

Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InterBase