History of Oracle

1978 -> Oracle V1; first commercial SQL relational database management system (RDBMS), Main architect Bob Miner, ran on pdp-11 under rsx; 128Kb memory, written in assembly, separated oracle and user codesto overcome the memory limitations

1979 -> Oracle V2; written in pdp-11 assembly language, ran on vax/vms in compatibility mode

1980 -> Oracle V3; written in C, soptable source code, introduced Transactions

1984 -> Oracle V4; introduced read consistency, ported to many plathforms, first interopability between PC and server

1986 -> Oracle V5; true client-sever, vax cluster support, distributed queries

1989 -> Oracle V6; OLTP performance enhancements, online backup/recovery, row level locking, plsql language, parallel server

1993 -> Oracle V7; declarative referential integrity, stored procedures and triggers, shared SQL, parallel execution, Advanced replication

1997 -> Oracle V8; Object-relational database, three-tier architecture, partitioning

1999 -> Oracle V8i; Java in database and native java support, XML support, Oracle Internet Directory, Summary management interMedia, Data warehousing enhancements, ported to Linux, Business components for java(BC4J), WebDB introduced(eventually mature into Portal and ApEx)

2001 -> Oracle V9i; Automatic segment space management, Real Apllication Clusters, Internet security enhancements, Data Guard, Advanced globalization support, record-breaking TPC-C benchmark results, 1st to complete 3 terabyte TPC-H world record

2003 -> Oracle V10g; Enterprise Grid Computing, 64-bit Linux with IPF

2005 -> Oracle VXE; free Oracle 10gR2 database

2007 -> Oracle V11g; as announced at Openworld 2006

Version Date Release Name

2 June 1979
3 March 1983
4 October 1984
5.0 April 1985
6.0 July 1988
7.0 June 1992
7.1 May 1994
7.2 May 1995
7.3 February 1996
8.0 June 1997 Oracle 8
8.1.5 February 1999 Oracle 8i Release 1
8.1.6 November 1999 Oracle 8i Release 2
8.1.7 August 2000 Oracle 8i Release 3
9.0.1 June 2001 Oracle 9i Release 1
9.2 May 2002 Oracle 9i Release 2
10.1 January 2004 Oracle 10g Release 1
10.2 July 2005 Oracle 10g Release 2

References used :
http://www.oracle.com/oramag/profit/07-may/p27anniv_timeline.pdf
http://www.oracle.com/corporate/history.html
http://www.oracle.com/corporate/home2.html