Database and database technology are having a major impact on the growing use of computers. The rising popularity of database systems for the management of data has resulted in an increasing number of systems. As the number grows, the difficulty in choosing the system which will best meet the requirements of a particular application also increases. Knowing how to choose the correct one for a given application is important.The purpose of this thesis is to compare two very commonly used Database Management Systems (ORACLE and RDB) at Ball State University by describing and listing the advantages of each of them as well as their weaknesses, giving a comprehensive study of their performances, user friendliness, limits, and to aid users and managers in obtaining a deeper knowledge of these two systems. / Department of Computer Science

Databases and database technology are having a major impact on the growing use of computers. It is fair to say that databases are playing a critical role in almost all areas where computers are used, including business, engineering, medicine, law, education, and library science, to name a few.At Ball State University, databases are very widely used among faculty, staff, and students. The common commercial database management system (DBMS) used in the university is ORACLE. Due to the extensive use of the system and the availability and easy access to alternative systems such as RDB/VMS, a comparative research is in order.This thesis is a comprehensive comparison between the two systems. It covers the differences in design, SQL codings, and the use of host programming language such as FORTRAN. It concentrates on the differences in memory usage, execution time, as well as the CPU time needed to precompile, link, and run. / Department of Computer Science