February 12, 2020

99. Database Soup – Explaining ACID, BASE, CAP – Part 1

In this episode, we cover the following topics:

In this new series, we are discussing database consistency models explained in three acts. This episode is “Act I: Transaction processing (circa 1973)”.
We start with the motivation behind talking about database soup – why are ACID, CAP, and BASE important to understand?
We define transaction processing and its origins. What exactly is a “transaction”?
Transactions are governed by ACID semantics. We define and explain the four characteristics of the ACID acronym::
- Atomicity
- Consistency
- Isolation
- Durability
The computer scientist, Jim Gray, came up with the idea of ACID semantics in the late 1970’s. We discuss some of the history behind this, along with a bizarre and tragic ending to his story.
We also share a personal story about another important player in transaction processing, Phil Bernstein.

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