Storage and access in relational data bases

IBM Systems Journal, Volume 16, Issue 4, pp. 363-377 (1977).

Modern commercial computer applications often require rapid access to large amounts of data in the form of databases. Databases not only represent a crucial infrastructure for computer applications, but they also process the transactions and exchanges that drive the economies of numerous countries. Many of today's markets rely on relational databases based on a model proposed in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This model permits a high degree of data independence by providing a logical view of the database that avoids details of the physical storage.

This very highly cited IBM Systems Journal paper discusses a model of storage and access to a relational database. In particular, it describes methods for evaluating the performance of relational queries. When this paper was written, although several relational database systems had been implemented, little information had appeared on the performance of such systems. In the early 1970s, IBM scientist Ted Codd published a paper introducing the concept of relational databases that called for information stored within a computer to be cast in the form of relationships. Today, most database structures are based on the IBM concept of relational databases.

See “The Rise of Relational Databases,” a chapter in the book Funding a Revolution: Government Support for Computing Research by National Research Council.