
The Rise of the Distributed SQL Database - nslater
https://crate.io/a/rise-distributed-sql-database/
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DrScump
This focuses on _open source_ databases. Distributed SQL databases go clear
back to the 1980s.

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zzzcpan
Do you have an example of one? I don't think anything from the pre-CAP time
can call itself distributed database, i.e. anything from the 1980s or 1990s or
even early 2000s. They usually made an assumption that the network is fast and
reliable, essentially ignoring all of the problems post-CAP distributed
databases address.

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DrScump
Informix did. Perhaps Ingres or Oracle, also.

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zzzcpan
Hmm, two-phase commit Informix included in like late 90s, which is pretty much
the only thing related to distributed systems it had. None of them were really
distributed databases in any way of course. The closest thing to a distributed
database you could have back then was NonStop SQL, but it was designed with an
assumption of a fast reliable network or more like a supercomputer.

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DrScump
I guess I was imagining it when I used the features myself internally starting
in 1989 or so.

Distributed client/server was first implemented in Informix-SE in the late
1980s but was more widely used starting with Informix-OnLine. Version 5.0
(general release in late 1991) had two-phased commit, but I think 4.X did also
no later than summer 1990 because I did some onsite diagnosis/fixing for a
major client then.

There are references to OnLine 5.0 features and general release in the
Informix 1991 Annual Report[0].

[0]
[http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Informix/i...](http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Informix/informix.annual_report_1991.102653313.pdf)

