AS3AP - An ANSI SQL Standard Scaleable and Portable Benchmark for Relational Database Systems

In 1983, the first commercially available database machines were becoming available and new prototypes, such as the GRACE Database Machine [Kit83], had been proposed. The Wisconsin Benchmark [BDT83] was created in an attempt to compare backend database machine architectures to software relational database systems running on a general purpose computer. Specifically, the database machines tested were the Britton-Lee IDM 500 and Direct [Dew79], and the software database systems were University Ingres on Berkeley Unix and commercial Ingres on the VMS operating system [Ston86]. In attempting to compare these systems, we soon realized that an appropriate benchmarking methodology for comparing database system architectures was, in and of itself, a topic of research. Hence, the Wisconsin Benchmark was born as an experiment in comparative benchmarking methodology.