Mimer SQL
Mimer SQL is a proprietary SQL-based relational database management system produced by the Swedish company Mimer Information Technology AB (Mimer AB), formerly known as Upright Database Technology AB. It was originally developed as a research project at the Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden in the 1970s before being developed into a commercial product. The database has been deployed in a wide range of application situations, including the National Health Service Pulse blood transfusion service in the UK, Volvo Cars production line in Sweden and automotive dealers in Australia. It has sometimes been one of the limited options available in realtime critical applications and resource restricted situations such as mobile devices.
| Mimer SQL | |
|---|---|
| Developer | Mimer AB |
| Stable release | 11.0.9F
/ 5 February 2026 |
| Preview release | 11.0.8C
/ 22 April 2024 |
| Operating system | OpenVMS, Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | www.mimer.com |
| Repository | https://developer.mimer.com/products/downloads/ |
Mimer SQL is a proprietary SQL-based relational database management system[1] produced by the Swedish company Mimer Information Technology AB (Mimer AB), formerly known as Upright Database Technology AB. It was originally developed as a research project at the Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden in the 1970s before being developed into a commercial product.[2]
The database has been deployed in a wide range of application situations, including the National Health Service Pulse blood transfusion service in the UK, Volvo Cars production line in Sweden and automotive dealers in Australia. It has sometimes been one of the limited options available in realtime critical applications and resource restricted situations such as mobile devices.[3][4][5][6]
History
[edit]Mimer SQL originated from a project from the ITC service center supporting Uppsala University and some other institutions to leverage the relational database capabilities proposed by Codd and others. The initial release in about 1975 was designated RAPID and was written in IBM assembler language. The name was changed to Mimer in 1977 to avoid a trademark issue. Other universities were interested in the project on a number of machine architectures and Mimer was rewritten in Fortran to achieve portability. Further models were developed for Mimer with the Mimer/QL implementing the QUEL query languages.[2]
The emergence of SQL in the 1980s as the standard query language resulted in Mimers' developers choosing to adopt it with the product becoming Mimer SQL.[2]
In 1984 Mimer was transferred to the newly established company Mimer Information Systems.[2]
Versions
[edit]As of July 2025[update] the Mimer SQL database server is currently supported on the main platforms of Windows, MacOS, Linux, QNX, and OpenVMS (Itanium and x86-64[7]).[8] Previous versions of the database engine was supported on other operating systems including Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, Tru 64, SCO[9] and DNIX. Versions of Mimer SQL are available for download and free for development.[10]
The Enterprise product is a standards based SQL database server based upon the Mimer SQL Experience database server. This product is highly configurable at build time, and components can be added, removed or replacing in the foundation product to achieve a derived product suitable for embedded, or small footprint application.[11]
For resource limited environments is the Mimer SQL Mobile database server a replacement runtime environment without a SQL compiler. This is used for portable and certain custom devices and is termed the Mobile Approach.[11] Additionally cancustom embedded approaches be applied to multiple hardware and operating system combinations.[11]
These options enable Mimer SQL to be deployed to a wide variety of additional target platforms, such as Android, and real-time operating systems including QNX.[9]
The database is available in embedded and automotive specialist versions requiring no maintenance,[12] with the intention to make the product suitable for mission-critical automotive, process automation and telecommunication systems.[13]
In May 2025 was a joint product between the British company Trustonic and Mimer announced, called Mimer Trust. Mimer Trust leverages the ARM architecture's TrustZone concept and adds the capability to not only store data inside the TrustZone for added security.
Features
[edit]Mimer SQL provides support for multiple database application programming interfaces (APIs): ODBC, JDBC, ADO.NET, Embedded SQL (C/C++, Cobol and Fortran), Module SQL (C/C++, Cobol, Fortran and Pascal), and the native API's Mimer SQL C API, Mimer SQL Real-Time API, and Mimer SQL Micro C API.
MimerPy is an adapter for Mimer SQL in Python[14], which also enables support for SQLAlchemy[15].
The Mimer Provider Manager is an ADO.NET provider dispatcher that uses different plugins to access different underlying ADO.NET providers.[16][17] The Mimer Provider Manager makes it possible to write database independent ADO.NET applications.[18]
Mimer SQL mainly uses optimistic concurrency control (OCC) to manage concurrent transactions.[19][20]
Mimer SQL is assigned port 1360 in the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) registry.[21]
Etymology
[edit]The name "Mimer" is taken from the Norse mythology, where Mimer was the giant guarding the well of wisdom, also known as "Mímisbrunnr". Metaphorically this is what a database system is doing – managing data.
See also
[edit]- Werner Schneider – the professor who started the development section for the relational database that became Mimer SQL (Swedish article)
References
[edit]- ^ Mimer Information Technology. "Technical Overview". Mimer SQL Technical Description (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 August 2016.
- ^ a b c d Eck, Stefan. "Database Technology - We made it possible". www.wemadeitpossible.com. Archived from the original on 25 April 2018. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
- ^ Sombers Associates, Inc.; Highleyman, W. H. (October 2008). "NHSBT - UK National Health Service – Blood & Transplant" (PDF). The Availability Website. Archived (PDF) from the original on 23 April 2018. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
- ^ "Australian Auto Dealers Gear Up to Mimer SQL". Cision. 12 November 2002. Archived from the original on 24 April 2018. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
- ^ Eck, Stefan (2011). "Mimer SQL on OpenVMS" (PDF). de/OpenVMS.org. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 April 2018. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
- ^ Caia, Simin; Gallinaa, Barbara; Nystrom, Dag; Seceleanua, Cristina; Larsson, Alf (2017). Design of Cloud Monitoring System via DAGGTAX: a Case Study. The 8th International Conference on Ambient Systems, Networks and Technologies (ANT 2017). Madeira, Portugal: Elsevier B.V. p. 429. ISBN 9781510842342.
- ^ "Mimer SQL is now available for OpenVMS on x86". Mimer Information Technology AB. 2023.
- ^ "Downloads - Mimer SQL - Always free for development!". Archived from the original on 10 April 2018. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
- ^ a b "Mimer SQL Products & Platforms". Mimer Developers – Platforms. 5 May 2017. Archived from the original on 10 August 2017.
- ^ Cohen, Peter (15 November 2015). "Mimer SQL released for Tiger, Tiger Server". Macworld. PCWorld. Archived from the original on 10 April 2018. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
- ^ a b c "The Mimer SQL Products". Archived from the original on 10 April 2018. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
- ^ "Mimer". Archived from the original on 14 October 2017.
- ^ Hjertstöm, Andreas (2012). "2.4.5" (PDF). Data Management in Component-Based Embedded Real-Time Systems (Dissertation). Mälaralen University Press. ISBN 978-91-7485-064-2. Mimer SQL Real-Time. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 October 2016. Retrieved 4 April 2020.
- ^ "MimerPy: Python database interface for Mimer SQL". GitHub. 25 May 2021.
- ^ https://pypi.org/project/sqlalchemy-mimer/.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ Alund, Fedrik. "Generic database access with Mimer Provider Manager". www.c-sharpcorner.com.
- ^ "Mimer Provider Manager". SourceForge. 24 April 2013.
- ^ Danielsson, Lars (2 February 2004). "Mimer dömer ut Microsoft". Computer Sweden. IDG.
- ^ "Transaction Concurrency - Optimistic Concurrency Control". Mimer Developers - Features. 26 February 2010. Archived from the original on 1 December 2016.
- ^ Olsson, Jenny (2008). "2.3" (PDF). Comparative Study of SQL Server and Mimer SQL in Mission-Critical Systems (Masters). Mimer SQL Engine. Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 October 2008.
- ^ "Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number Registry". IANA. 5 April 2018. 1360. Archived from the original on 5 January 2018. Retrieved 8 April 2018.