Since the 1960s, the technology for managing data has evolved from file system to hierarchical, to network, to relational. RDBMSs were originally designed for mainframe computers and business data processing. Many of today's applications are workstation based and involve complex data and operations. For example, computer aided design database require the support of composite objects and different versions of the same objects. A multimedia database may contain variable length text, graphics, images, audio, and video data. Finally a knowledge base requires data rich in Semantics.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the image of the classical mainframe computer for computing is decreasing and the trend is towards Client/Server computing.

In this block we have taken up three new emerging topics/disciplines in database. These are Object oriented databases, Client /Server databases and Knowledge databases. In fact there are many more such as Distributed database, Multimedia database, temporal database, spatial database, etc. In this block there are 4 units:

The first unit introduces object oriented database system. In this unit we have discussed the basic components of OODBMS, how it is different from RDBMS and what are its drawbacks and promises.

The second unit takes up Client/Server database. Apart from talking about basics of Client/Server computing, we have also demonstrated how to develop an application in Client/Server environment.

The third unit discusses Knowledge database. The focal points covered in this unit are how a knowledge base system is different from database and what are knowledge representation schemes.

The fourth unit provides an overview of distributed database management system. These database management systems are closest to RDBMS technology.

Activities for the Week