Teradata Tutorial

Teradata was built for data warehousing from the start. Teradata Corporation was founded in Los Angeles, California, and incorporated on July 13, 1979. The corporate goal was to create a database computer that could handle billions of rows of data, up to and beyond a terabyte of data storage. The first product, a Teradata Database Computer (DBC/1012), was shipped to the first customer with the Teradata RDBMS on a proprietary platform in 1984.

Teradata became an open system in 1996, when the Teradata RDBMS Version 2 was ported to the general-purpose UNIX platform. Since then, Teradata has been ported to Microsoft Windows NT, then Microsoft Windows 2000.

Today, Teradata is the brand name of NCR’s premiere relational database management system, the foundation for the active data warehousing and other NCR solutions.

Teradata: Evolving to Meet Customer Requirements:-

Teradata is a longtime leader in large-scale relational database management. The Teradata RDBMS has evolved over the years, anticipating customers’ future information processing needs. One of its major evolutions involved being ported from a proprietary platform to an open environment.

Version 1 and Version 2:-

Version 1: A Revolution in Its Time

The Teradata RDBMS Version 1 ran on the proprietary Teradata Operating System (TOS). Version 1 was supported on the following hardware platforms:

• Teradata DBC/1012
• NCR System 3600

While these systems are older technologies, they are still in use at some customer sites. Version 1 has the following characteristics:

• Hardware processors are physically cabled to the system (AMPs, IFPs, COPs, and PEPs).
• Messages are passed between hardware processors using the Ynet interconnect.
• Support for channel-attached and network-attached clients, called “hosts.”
• Runs on the Teradata Operating System (TOS).

Version 2: Significant Improvements in Processing Power and Flexibility

The current version, Teradata RDBMS Version 2, evolved from the TOS-based version, providing additional processing options, better scalability, better performance, and conformance to ANSI standards for SQL. Some technology advances include:

• Virtual processors called “vprocs” (AMPs and PEs) allow for better resiliency, more efficient use of system resources, and more flexibility than the hardware processors.
• Messages are passed over the BYNET, which allows Teradata to be a more linearly expandable system. As the database grows, additional nodes may be added without performance penalties.
• Support for channel-attached and network-attached clients.
• Runs on UNIX and Microsoft Windows.

Teradata RDBMS Version 2 hardware platforms include:

• WorldMark 5100S and 5100M
• WorldMark 4300, 4700, and 5150
• WorldMark 4400, 4800, and 5200
• WorldMark 4850 and 5250

The remainder of this Web-Based Training course covers the characteristics of Teradata RDBMS Version 2.