InterBase
| Company type | Proprietary software |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software, Database management system |
| Founder | Jim Starkey (implied) |
Area served | Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, Solaris, Android, iOS |
| Products | Relational database management system (RDBMS) |
| Owner | Embarcadero Technologies |
| Website | www |
InterBase is a relational database management system (RDBMS) created and distributed by Embarcadero Technologies. It is compatible with a variety of operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, Solaris, Android, and iOS.
Technology
InterBase adheres to the SQL-92 standard and provides support for common interfaces like JDBC, ODBC, and ADO.NET.
Multiversion concurrency control prior to InterBase
The concept of Multiversion concurrency control (MVCC) was introduced in the 1981 publication "Concurrency Control in Distributed Database Systems" authored by Philip Bernstein and Nathan Goodman at the Computer Corporation of America. This work cites a 1978 dissertation from MIT by D.P. Reed, which initially outlined the MVCC approach.
Foundational period
While employed at DEC on the DATATRIEVE 4GL project, Jim Starkey developed a mechanism to handle concurrent modifications by users, addressing locking challenges present in early relational databases. Although InterBase’s MVCC closely mirrors Reed’s original design, Starkey asserts that he independently developed the idea, drawing inspiration from a Prime Computer database feature that enabled page-level snapshots to provide consistent read views without hindering writers.
Open source developments
At the start of 2000, Borland declared its intention to make InterBase available as open-source and initiated plans to create a separate entity for its management. The source code for InterBase version 6 was published under a variant of the Mozilla Public License by mid-2000.
Following this, Borland issued proprietary releases of InterBase versions 6 and 6.5. Although Borland eventually halted active development on the open source project after several updates, the open source fork known as Firebird, derived from InterBase 6, remains actively maintained.
A security vulnerability in the form of a backdoor, present in all versions since 1994, was identified and fixed in 2001.
CodeGear acquisition
On May 7, 2008, Borland and Embarcadero Technologies announced that Embarcadero would acquire CodeGear for roughly $24.5 million. This transaction was finalized on June 30, 2008.