SQL Server 2000 Will RTM Next Week

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July 27, 2000 (11:37 AM EDT)

REDMOND, Wash. -- Microsoft will release SQL Server 2000 to manufacturing next week, company officials said Thursday.

Simultaneously, the software giant released results of TPC-C testing results which show Microsoft (stock: MSFT) winning four of the top five posts in the transactions-per-minute category.

The IBM (stock: IBM) DB2 captured first place, while the combination of Windows 2000 and SQL 2000 running on Compaq (stock: CPQ) hardware took second, third, fourth, and fifth place.

Sun (stock: SUNW) hardware running Oracle (stock: ORCL) software came in at 10th place on the list, said Chris Atkinson, Microsoft vice president of .NET solutions. He took the opportunity to lob several jabs at database competitors, the longstanding leaders in the field.

"Being old and expensive is great if you are an antique," he said. "It's not so great if you area database."

Despite losing first place, Microsoft still claims to have the best overall price performance ratio, Atkinson said.

"We're making dramatic improvements in SQL Server 2000," he said. It "has XML baked into the core."

Atkinson announced the RTM date and test results during a briefing on enterprise servers at Microsoft's annual financial analysts meeting.

SQL in fiscal year 2000 achieved a 35 percent growth rate, he said. Other metrics touted included 22 out of the top 50 B-to-C sites by visitors and 13 out of top 50 B-to-C sites by transactions.