New with Embarcadero® InterBase® XE!

• New! Stronger password protection with SHA-1 cryptographic hash function and supports passwords up to 32 bytes long to comply with the most stringent security requirements.
• New! Simplified application development with support for Dynamic SQL in Stored Procedures.
• New! Support for larger buffer caches for improved performance.
• New! Optimized performance of large objects with Stream methods.
• New! Improved scalability with the ability to handle 128 times more data.

High-performance Durable Architecture

InterBase  is one of the fastest native databases available, and through support for symmetric multiprocessing it scales to effectively utilize multiple CPUs, including multi-core CPUs. Performance enhancements and optimizations have been added in a number of areas, such as batch updates, query optimizations, and OLTP improvement via journaling. InterBase implements a multi-generational architecture (MVCC) providing unique versioning capabilities that result in high data availability for transaction processing users and decision support users—simultaneously. Support for multiple simultaneous instances of InterBase on the same machine provides application isolation and load balancing.

• Full-featured ANSI-SQL RDBMS
• Support for ACID-compliant transactions, Referential Integrity, Triggers, Cursors, Stored Procedures, Functions (including user-defined functions), and Data Domains
• Support for large and complex objects and External files for multi-media applications
• Small footprint (Less than 50 Megabytes), yet highly scalable
• Thread-safe client library-enhanced stability and improved performance for InterBase® clients
• Multigenerational architecture (MVCC) enables unparalleled concurrency between readers and writers
• Native multi-threaded server with background garbage collection and multi-user page-buffer management
• Garbage collection improves response and throughput
• Performance Monitoring allows monitoring of many functions
• 2007 and later:  SMP support for high performance on multiple CPU systems including multi-core CPUs.
• 2007 and later: Extended support for International character support sets via Unicode (UCS-2) and UTF-8 for internationalized applications
• 2007 and later:  Batch Updates allow sending a group of SQL statements, reduces the network traffic in improved performance, especially in LAN and WAN environments
• 7.5 and later:  Optimized memory management allocation algorithms
• 7.5 and later: Stored procedure and trigger cache management
• 7.5 and later: Sort buffer cache management
• 7.5 and later: Thread-private Latch Cache for enhanced SMP scalability

Security features to protect sensitive information

InterBase® provides security features typically only available in costly data servers. InterBase supports both Strong (AES) and Weak (DES) encryption to protect sensitive personal and financial data at-rest, over-the-wire and in backups

• 2009 SMP and later:  Over-the-Wire (OTW) Encryption encrypts the data as well as any other communications (commands, etc.) between servers and clients.
• 2009 SMP and later:  Database and Column-level encryption to encrypt a database and/or individual columns in a database
• 2009 SMP and later:  Strong (AES) and Weak (DES) Encryption support
• Metadata security allows protection of intellectual property
• 2009 SMP and later:  Encryption of backup files adds an additional layer of protection to your data
• Support for Users, Roles and Groups

Scalability

InterBase® is light-weight yet robust and scalable.  It installs in as little as 50MB yet scales easilty to handle large volumes of data or users.

• Scales to handle up to 1,000 Users
• Scales to handle up to a Terabyte of data
• Scales to take advantage of today's multi-core and SMP machine architectures
• Scales from embedded devices and applications to single-user applications to multi-user enterprise demands
• 2009 SMP and later:  To-Go Edition provides small, portable, inter-process version of the Desktop Edition. Target applications for the To-Go Edition include small devices and public kiosks, as well as Value Added Reseller (VAR) applications
• 2007 and later: Hyperthreading support for Intel® Pentium® 4 and Intel Xeon® processors
• 7.5 and later:  Load-balancing with database re-routing

Reliability and Availability

InterBase®  provides protection against failures and increased disaster recovery options through log-based journaling for short-term recovery, and journal archiving for long-term recovery in the occurrence of hardware system failures. In addition, InterBase  introduces Online Backupof database files and Point-in-Time Recovery from archives.

• 2007 and later:  Online Dump provides backup for seamless incremental backup which significantly reduces the amount of time required to perform backups since incremental backups only take the much smaller delta between the database versions.
• 2007 and later: Point-in-time-recovery allows journal based recovery based on timestamp for greater recovery flexibility. This allows users to roll back to when they know the database was in a good state, and minimize any data loss.
• 2007 and later: Journal Archiving provides disaster recovery in the event a database becomes unavailable due to hardware or software failures that may make the primary database permanently inaccessible by allowing log files to be saved on a standby machine that can take over in case the primary machine crashes.
• 2007 and later: Journaling with Write Ahead Logging (WAL) technology improves VLDB management, OLTP performance, and facilitates disaster recovery.
• 7.5 and later:  Server-side database alias renames a database file within the context of the server, enabling clients to connect to a database regardless of knowledge of its exact location on a given server adding greater security and convenience since database can be moved without impacting users.

Built for Developers

Developers using Embarcadero RAD Studio, which includes Delphi® and Delphi for .NET, and C++Builder®, as well as JBuilder®, 3rdRail and other tools can leverage a wide range of standard database connectivity options through ODBC, JDBC, ADO.NET, and IBX. Transaction monitoring facilities provide developers with granular database controls for viewing, starting, stopping, and rolling back transactions, processes, and queries. InterBase, compliant with SQL92 standards, offers developers everything they can expect from an SQL database: triggers, stored procedures, and views, as well as advanced concepts such as domains and event alerters.

• Blob/Text SQL syntax enhancements allows use of BLOBs and VARCHAR data interchangeably, even in stored procedures
• DataGear Data Provider 2.5, an ADO.NET driver, makes InterBase “.NET-ready”
• Support for Microsoft .NET Framework and Java development
• Support for multiple development tools, including CodeGear RAD Studio, Delphi®, C++Builder®, C#Builder®, and 3rdRail™
• Support for IBExpress and dbExpress native drivers in CodeGear Developer Studio (Delphi, C++)
• Can be installed on multiple machines for testing purposes
• Stored procedures encapsulate business logic on server for reduced network traffic
• Dependency tracking of UDFs and generators in metadata to simplify development and reduce costs
• User-defined functions for extensible query support
• Active database features include modular triggers and event alerts
• Delimited identifiers for flexible naming conventions
• BLOBs, subtypes, and filters to capture arbitrarily large, unstructured data
• Cascading referential integrity constraints help maintain the validity of data
• SQL-compliant DATE, TIME, and TIMESTAMP support
• Large exact numeric support
• Programmable services to administer and monitor databases
• Very Large Data Base (VLDB: 64 bit) I/O support allows databases in a single file to grow to terabytes in length
• SQL ROWS feature gives better control of the result set
• XML data-generation capability for InterBase clients
• Support for the SQL99 SAVEPOINT function
• ODBC for Windows®, Linux, and Solaris™ applications
• InterClient® 8.0, a JDBC™ 2.0 Type 4-compliant JDBC driver for Java™ access
• Support for J2EE™CMP2.x and data source connections through InterClient JDBC
• 7.5 and later: Global temporary tables 

Easy to Embed and Deploy

InterBase  Server Edition is certified to run without modification on Windows®, Linux, Solaris™, and Mac OS® X. This enables deployment to a wide variety of platforms without having to rewrite code. The database is fully portable between platforms, and also from InterBase  Desktop Edition to InterBase  Server Edition, allowing for flexible deployment. In addition, InterBase  supports international character sets, including the latest Unicode, UTF-8 and UCS-2 framework components.

• Self-tuning features minimize database administration
• Cross-platform installer with unified look and feel
• Deploy databases on CD-ROM, DVD, and other read-only media
• Asynchronous statement cancel provides the ability to cancel queries
• Regulate application usage by leveraging built-in licensing components
• Connection monitoring support for viewing, starting, stopping, and transactions including monitoring via IBConsole
• Unlimited user licensing available
• Easy installation and small footprint simplify deployment requirements
• Silently embed InterBase into applications with customizable install components
• 7.5 and later:  Multi-tenancy allows multiple instances of InterBase on the same machine
• 7.5 and later:  Embedded database user authentication

Embed – Deploy – Relax

InterBase combines simple installation and automatic crash recovery, with a self-tuning engine that makes it the perfect RDBMS for embedding in applications and in devices of all sizes. It is ideal for ISVs, OEMs, and VARs who require a database that is very compact without compromising sophisticated features to support high-powered, business-critical applications. And, unlike many other enterprise databases that require expensive ecosystems of support and maintenance, InterBase  is virtually maintenance free.