[Info-vax] Rdb/x86

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 11/13/2020 2:12 PM, Craig A. Berry wrote:
> 
> On 11/13/20 12:28 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>> On 11/13/2020 11:00 AM, Phillip Helbig (undress to reply) wrote:
>>> In article <rom141$v4h$1 at dont-email.me>, Simon Clubley
>>> <clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP> writes:
>>>> This would send a major signal because VSI have managed to get _Oracle_
>>>> to commit to Rdb on x86-64 and it would be a major confidence boost 
>>>> that
>>>> x86-64 VMS is less likely to suddenly fail at the last moment.
>>>
>>> Rdb was ported before.  Maybe they did it right.  Maybe it was more or
>>> less compile and go, hence not a big commitment.  Not to take away from
>>> Rdb engineering, but trying to spin this as some huge commitment on the
>>> part of Oracle would probably be stretching it.  Has Larry heard of Rdb?
>>> Very probably.  VSI?  Probably.  The port?  Maybe a word or two.  I'm
>>> sure that he is more committed to his yachts than to VMS.
>>
>> The word is that Rdb is very much Bliss.
>>
>> A port to a different ISA with same OS, same compiler, same
>> bitness, same endianess and a simpler memory model should
>> not be too bad.
> 
> They generate some query-specific code at run-time and use GEM for the
> precompilers, so it's likely a bit more than compile-and-go.

For code generation ISA becomes important.

Which makes me think about a question: will VMS x86-64 use NX bit?

>                                                              But yes,
> they have done this before, and appear to have learned a few things and
> improved portability in the VAX-to-Alpha and Alpha-to-Itanium ports as
> well as in the abortive ports to Windows NT and Tru64:
> 
> <https://download.oracle.com/otndocs/products/rdb/pdf/tech_archive/port_rdb_to_itanium.pdf> 
> 
> By the way, notice the statement of commitment from an Oracle VP on
> slide #2 before VMS had even booted on Itanium.

At the time HP was one of the worlds biggest IT companies and
significantly bigger than Oracle.

Arne