Charles Bachman

Not to be confused with Charles A. Bachman.
Charles W. Bachman

Charles Bachman at the 2012 ACM Turing Centenary Celebration
Born (1924-12-11) December 11, 1924
Manhattan, Kansas
Nationality American
Fields Computer Science
Institutions Dow Chemical
General Electric
Cullinet
Bachman Information Systems
Alma mater

University of Pennsylvania,

Michigan State University
Known for Integrated Data Store
Notable awards ACM Turing Award (1973)
National Medal of Technology and Innovation (2012)
ACM Fellow (2014)
Basic structure of navigational CODASYL database model[1]

Charles William "Charlie" Bachman III (born December 11, 1924) is an American computer scientist, who spent his entire career as an industrial researcher, developer, and manager rather than in academia. He is particularly known for his work in the early development of database management systems. His techniques of layered architecture include his namesake Bachman diagrams.

Biography

Charles Bachman was born in Manhattan, Kansas in 1924, where his father, Charles Bachman Jr., was the head football coach at Kansas State College. He attended high school in East Lansing, Michigan.

In World War II he joined the United States Army and spent March 1944 through February 1946 in the South West Pacific Theater serving in the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Corps in New Guinea, Australia, and the Philippine Islands. There he was first exposed to and used fire control computers for aiming 90 mm guns.[2]

After his discharge in 1946 he attended Michigan State College and graduated in 1948 with a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering where he was a member of Tau Beta Pi. In mid-1949 he married Connie Hadley.[3] He then attended the University of Pennsylvania. In 1950, he graduated with a master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, and had also completed three-quarters of the requirements for an MBA from the university's Wharton School of Business.[2]

Work

Bachman spent his entire career as a practicing software engineer or manager in industry rather than in academia. In 1950 he started working at Dow Chemical in Midland, Michigan. In 1957 he became Dow's first data processing manager. He worked with the IBM user group SHARE, on developing new version of report generator software, which became known as 9PAC. However, the planned IBM 709 order was cancelled before it arrived.[4] In 1960 he joined General Electric, where by 1963 he developed the Integrated Data Store (IDS) one of the first database management systems using what came to be known as the navigational database model in the Manufacturing Information And Control System (MIACS) product. Working for customer Weyerhaeuser Lumber, he developed the first multiprogramming network access to the IDS database, an early online transaction processing system called WEYCOS in 1965. Later at GE he developed the "dataBasic" product that offered database support to the Basic language timesharing users. In 1970, GE sold its computer business to Honeywell Information Systems, and so he and his family moved from Phoenix, Arizona to Lexington, Massachusetts.[5] In 1981, he joined a smaller firm, Cullinane Information Systems (later Cullinet), which offered a version of IDS that was called IDMS and supported IBM mainframes.[5]

Bachman Information Systems

In 1983, he founded Bachman Information Systems, which developed a line of computer-aided software engineering (CASE) products. The centerpiece of these products was the BACHMAN/Data Analyst, which provided graphic support to the creation and maintenance of Bachman Diagrams. It was featured in IBM's Reengineering Cycle marketing program, combining:

  1. the reverse engineering of obsolete mainframe databases,
  2. data modeling,
  3. forward engineering to new physical databases, and
  4. optimization of physical database designs for performance and DBMS specifics.

In 1991 Bachman Information Systems had their initial public offering, trading on the NASDAQ with the symbol BACH. After reaching a high of $37.75 in February 1992, the price hit $1.75 in 1995. In 1996, his company merged with Cadre Technology to form Cayenne Software.[6] He served as president of the combined company for a year, and then retired to Tucson, Arizona. He continued to serve as chairman of the board of Cayenne, which was acquired by Sterling Software in 1998.[2][7]

Honors and Awards

Publications

Bachman published dozens of publications and papers.[12] A selection:

After his retirement, Bachman volunteered to help record the history of early software development. In 2002 he gave a lecture at the Computer History Museum on assembling the Integrated Data Store,[13] and an oral history for the ACM in 2004.[4] Bachman papers from 1951 to 2007 are available from the Charles Babbage Institute at the University of Minnesota.[12] In 2011, he contributed an oral history to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Jean-Baptiste Waldner (1992). CIM: Principles of Computer Integrated Manufacturing. John Wiley & Sons.
  2. 1 2 3 "Lectures: Charles W. (Charlie) Bachman". Computer History Museum. Archived from the original on June 4, 2004. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
  3. ↑ Thomas Haigh (October 2011). "Charles W. Bachman: Database Software Pioneer" (PDF). Annals of the History of Computing. IEEE. 23 (4): 71–80. doi:10.1109/MAHC.2011.68. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
  4. 1 2 Thomas Haigh (September 25–26, 2004). "Charles W. Bachman interview". ACM Oral History interviews. doi:10.1145/1141880.1141882. ISBN 978-1-4503-1771-9.
  5. 1 2 3 Andrew L. Russell (April 9, 2011). "Oral-History:Charles Bachman". IEEE Oral History Network. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
  6. ↑ "Proxy Statement for Bachman Information Systems, Inc.". US SEC. March 25, 1996. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
  7. ↑ "Sterling software announces agreement to purchase Cayenne Software". Press release. August 31, 1998. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
  8. ↑ Tom Haigh. "Charles W. Bachman — A.M. Turing Award Winner". Retrieved September 3, 2013.
  9. ↑ http://www.nationalmedals.org/laureates/charles-bachman#
  10. ↑ ACM Fellows 2014
  11. ↑ CHM. "Charles W. Bachman — CHM Fellow Award Winner". Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  12. 1 2 "Charles W. Bachman Papers, 1951—". Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota. Collection contains archival materials detailing database software development. Includes documentation on Dow Chemical (1951-1960), General Electric (1960-1970), Honeywell Information Systems (1970-1981), Cullinane Database Systems/Cullinet (1972-1986), Bachman Information Systems, Inc. (1982-1996), Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) (1971-1982), American National Standards Institute (ANSI) (1978-1983) as well as several international standard organizations.
  13. ↑ "Assembling the Integrated Data Store (IDS), lecture by Charlie Bachman". Computer History Museum. April 16, 2002. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
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