Microsoft SQL Server

The code base for MS SQL Server (prior to version 7.0) originated in Sybase SQL Server, and was Microsoft’s entry to the enterprise-level database market, competing against Oracle, IBM, and, later, Sybase itself. Microsoft, Sybase and Ashton-Tate originally teamed up to create and market the first version named SQL Server 1.0 for OS/2 (about 1989) which was essentially the same as Sybase SQL Server 3.0 on Unix, VMS, etc. Microsoft SQL Server 4.2 was shipped around 1992 (available bundled with Microsoft OS/2 version 1.3). Later Microsoft SQL Server 4.21 for Windows NT was released at the same time as Windows NT 3.1. Microsoft SQL Server v6.0 was the first version designed for NT, and did not include any direction from Sybase.

SQL Server Release History - as of 2009

About the time Windows NT was released, Sybase and Microsoft parted ways and each pursued their own design and marketing schemes. Microsoft negotiated exclusive rights to all versions of SQL Server written for Microsoft operating systems. Later, Sybase changed the name of its product to Adaptive Server Enterprise to avoid confusion with Microsoft SQL Server. Until 1994, Microsoft’s SQL Server carried three Sybase copyright notices as an indication of its origin.

Since parting ways, several revisions have been done independently. SQL Server 7.0 was a rewrite from the legacy Sybase code. It was succeeded by SQL Server 2000, which was the first edition to be launched in a variant for the IA-64 architecture.

SQL Server may refer to:

• Any database server that implements the Structured Query Language
• Microsoft SQL Server, a specific implementation of a relational database server from Microsoft
• Sybase SQL Server, a relational database server developed by Sybase

Microsoft® SQL Server™ is a database management and analysis system for e-commerce, line-of-business, and data warehousing solutions. In this section you will find information for several versions of SQL Server.

Microsoft SQL Server is an application used to create computer databases for the Microsoft Windows family of server operating systems. It provides an environment used to generate databases that can be accessed from workstations, the web, or other media such as a personal digital assistant (PDA).

T-SQL:

T-SQL (Transact-SQL) is the primary means of programming and managing SQL Server. It exposes keywords for the operations that can be performed on SQL Server, including creating and altering database schemas, entering and editing data in the database as well as monitoring and managing the server itself. Client applications, both which consume data or manage the server, leverage SQL Server functionality by sending T-SQL queries and statements which are then processed by the server and results (or errors) returned to the client application. SQL Server allows it to be managed using T-SQL. For this it exposes read only tables from which server statistics can be read. Management functionality is exposed via system-defined stored procedures which can be invoked from T-SQL queries to perform the management operation.

Source: Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_SQL_Server), FunctionX (http://www.functionx.com/sqlserver/Lesson01.htm), About.com (http://databases.about.com/od/sqlserver/Microsoft_SQL_Server.htm)