Chapter 1 -- The Evolution of Microsoft SQL Server: 1989 to 2000

Chapter 1

In 1985, Microsoft and IBM announced "a long-term joint development agreement for development of operating systems and other systems software products." This announcement was the beginning of OS/2, a successor to the Microsoft MS-DOS operating system. OS/2 would be a more complete and robust operating system. It would exploit the powerful new personal computers based on the Intel 80286 processor. And it would allow multitasking applications, each with its own address space and each running in the safe ring 3 of the Intel four-ring protection scheme of the 80286. Machines sold in 1986 would be vastly more powerful than the original IBM PC (an Intel 8088-based machine) of just a couple years earlier, and OS/2 would signal a new age in harnessing this power. That was the plan.

OS/2 was formally announced in April 1987, with shipment promised by the end of the year. (OS/2 version 1.0 was released to manufacturing on December 16, 1987.) But shortly after the joint declaration, IBM announced a special higher-end version of OS/2 called OS/2 Extended Edition. This more powerful version would include the base OS/2 operating system plus an SQL RDBMS called OS/2 Database Manager. OS/2 Database Manager would be useful for small applications and would be partially compatible (although not initially interoperable) with DB/2, IBM's flagship MVS mainframe database, and with the lesser-used SQL/DS, which ran on slightly smaller mainframe computers using the VM or VSE operating systems. OS/2 Database Manager would also include Systems Network Architecture (SNA) communications services, called OS/2 Communications Manager. As part of its sweeping Systems Application Architecture (SAA), IBM promised to make the products work well together in the future. (OS/2 Database Manager later evolved into today's DB2/2.)

But if IBM could offer a more complete OS/2 solution, who would buy Microsoft OS/2? Clearly, Microsoft needed to come up with an answer to this question.