Why Databases??

Although we tend to think of databases as a mainstay of computer programs, they were not always common. In fact, they are relative new and have been only around only since about the mid to late 1960s (on Mainframe computers), and were of little practical value on PCs until about the1990s.

??? Why Not ???

A database, although extremely useful, effective and efficient, uses an large amount of resources (Memory (Random Access Memory, or RAM), Disk Storage, and so forth). Earlier generations of computers just weren't equipped to deal with the resources required (i.e., the technology just wasn't there). Even the early database packages (such as IBM's Information Management System (IMS), was relatively crude compared to the computers we have today.

PCs were initially much more limited. Remember that the first IBM PC, when it came out in 1981, used an Intel 8088 which operated at 6.44 MHz (6.44 Million Cycles per second) had only 16KB of RAM (That's thousands of bytes, not millions; it was expandable to 64K (Wow!)  of RAM, however), and came with only a 160 KB 5-1/4" floppy diskette (for secondary storage --- There was no such thing as a hard drive). Compare that with the Personal Version of Oracle 8i (a very popular and widely used database package) which requires of 500MB of storage as a zipped (compressed) file. When the file is unzipped (uncompressed), the full package requires about 2GB (2 Billion bytes) of storage. And that is only the secondary storage requirements!! The requirements on Memory (again, Random Access Memory, or RAM) are even more demanding. Today's computers generally operate in the 2 GHz (2 billion cycles per second; about 311 TIMES FASTER than the original IBM PC) come with 256MB of RAM, and can generally be upgraded to 1GB of RAM, or more. One GB of RAM is approximately 62,500 TIMES MORE than the 16KB of RAM available (originally) in the 1st PCs. As for external storage, well, you can get hard drives which will hold 200GB (or more), which is about 1,250,000 TIMES MORE than the first single-sided diskettes held.

??? So it all due to Operating Speed, RAM and storage limitations???

No, there were also a lot of inefficiencies in the way we went about processing data in the earlier days.

??? What Problems ???

That is the next topic