IBM Peterlee Relational Test Vehicle (PRTV)

PRTV ("Peterlee Relational Test Vehicle") was the world's first relational database management system that could handle significant data volumes.

It was a relational query system with powerful query facilities, but very limited update facility and no simultaneous multiuser facility. PRTV was a follow-on from the very first relational implementation, IS1.

Features

PRTV included several firsts in the relational database area:
* implemented relational optimizer cite journal|title=Optimization of a single relational expression in a relational database system|journal= IBM J. Res. Dev.|date=May 1976|first=Patrick A.V.|last=Hall|coauthors= |volume=20|issue=3|pages=244–257|id= |url= ]
* implemented cost based relational optimizer cite journal|title=The Peterlee Relational Test Vehicle - A System Overview|journal=IBM Systems Journal|date=1976|first=Stephen|last=Todd|coauthors=|volume=15|issue=4|pages=285–308|id= |url=]
* handle tables of 1000 rows up to 10,000,000 rows cite journal|title=Report of the World Health Organisation Information Systems Programme and IBM UK Scientific Centre study on the design of information systems|journal=UKSC Report 105|date=1979|first=R.|last=Storey|coauthors=W. Trebeljahr, N. Ourusoff, M. Bunzel|volume=|issue= |pages= |id= |url= ]
* user defined functions (UDFs) within an RDB (also a large suite of built-in functions such as trigonometric and statistical) Citation| first=Patrick A.V. | last=Hall| coauthors=J. Owlett, Stephen Todd| contribution=Relations and Entities| title=IFIP Working Conference on Modelling in Data Base Management Systems 1976| editor-first=G.M.| editor-last= Nijssen| coeditors=| publisher=North Holland| pages=201–220| date=| year=1976| id= | contribution-url= ]
* geographic information system based on an RDB (using UDFs such as point-in-polygon). cite journal|title=An urban management system — general overview|journal=Rep. No UKSC-53, IBM UK Scientific Center, Peterlee, England|date=May 1974|first=B.K.|last=Aldred|coauthors=B.S. Smedley|volume=|issue=|pages=|id= |url= ]

PRTV was based on a relational algebra, Information Systems Base Language (ISBL) and followed the relational model very strictly. Even features such as user defined functions were formalized within that model Citation| first=Patrick A.V. | last=Hall| coauthors=P. Hitchcock, Stephen Todd| contribution=An algebra of relations for machine computation| title=Conference record of the second ACM Symposium on the Principles of Programming Languages| editor-first=| editor-last= | coeditors=| publisher=ACM| place=Palo Alto, California| pages=225–232| date=January 1975| year=| id= | contribution-url= ] . The PRTV team also introduced surrogates to the relational model to help formalize relational update operations; and a formalisation for updating through views. Citation| first=Stephen | last=Todd| coauthors= | contribution=Automatic Constraint Maintenance and Updating Defined Relations| title=Proceedings of the IFIP Congress 1977| editor-first=Bruce| editor-last=Gilchrist| coeditors=| publisher=North Holland| place=Toronto, Canada| pages=145–148| date=August 1977 year=| id= | contribution-url= ] However neither of these was implemented within PRTV. PRTV emphatically did "not" implement NULL values, because of the formal problems these pose.

PRTV was itself never available as a product, but the Urban Management System [ cite journal|title=An urban management system — general overview|journal=Rep. No UKSC-53, IBM UK Scientific Center, Peterlee, England|date=May 1974|first=Barry K.|last=Aldred|coauthors=B.S. Smedley|volume= |issue= |pages= |id= |url= ] built on it was available as a limited IBM product.

References