Enscribe
| Company type | Software |
|---|---|
| Industry | Database management |
| Predecessor | Tandem Computers |
| Founded | 1980 |
| Founder | Tandem Computers |
| Fate | Acquired |
| Successor | Hewlett Packard Enterprise |
Area served | Enterprises requiring high availability and scalability |
| Products | Hierarchical database software for HP NonStop servers |
| Owner | Hewlett Packard Enterprise |
Enscribe serves as the native hierarchical database tailored specifically for commercial HP NonStop (Tandem) servers, with a focus on fault tolerance and scalability. This solution is presently provided by Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
The database was initially created by Tandem Computers and subsequently passed through ownership changes, being acquired by Compaq in 1997 and later by Hewlett-Packard in 2002. After Hewlett-Packard's division in 2015, Enscribe along with the NonStop product suite became part of Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
Designed primarily for online transaction processing, Enscribe caters to enterprises that demand high availability and scalability, such as financial exchanges, telecommunications providers, retail point-of-sale systems, and ATM networks.
Notable capabilities include:
- Support for five disk file formats: unstructured, key-sequenced, queue, entry-sequenced, and relative
- Multi-volume partitioned files
- Access to records via multiple keys
- Relational linking of fields across different files
- Optional features for automatic key upkeep and data compression
- Transaction auditing through Transaction Management Facility (TMF/MP), which is integrated with NonStop Transaction Manager/MP
- Locking mechanisms at both record and file levels
- Buffering techniques including cache and sequential block buffering
- Support for both waited and nowaited I/O operations to facilitate multi-threaded programming
Management of Enscribe files can be performed using NonStop OS Guardian APIs or through the File Utility Program (FUP). Additionally, Tandem provided tools to convert Enscribe files into NonStop SQL format when migration was necessary.
Numerous mission-critical applications running on HP NonStop servers depend on Enscribe databases to deliver reliable transaction processing.
History
Introduced in the early 1980s, Enscribe was developed for parallel computing environments, enabling distributed data management, execution, and transactional support. Initially available as a licensed add-on before becoming bundled with the operating system, it remains one of the rare hierarchical database systems capable of near-linear scaling with additional processors—achieving approximately double the throughput when a second CPU is introduced.