Rick (R.G.G.) Cattell


Rick Cattell

Phone and email address

Career Biography

Dr. R. G. G. "Rick" Cattell is an independent consultant in database systems and in engineering management. He previously worked as a Distinguished Engineer at Sun Microsystems, mostly recently on open source database systems and proprietary innovations in database systems. Dr. Cattell served for 20+ years at Sun Microsystems in management and senior technical roles, and for 10+ years in research at Xerox PARC and at Carnegie-Mellon University. Dr. Cattell is best known for his contributions to middleware and database systems --- particularly enterprise Java, object-oriented databases, object/relational mappings, and database interfaces. He is the author of several dozen papers and six books. He instigated Java DB and Java 2 Enterprise Edition, and was a contributor to a number of the Enterprise Java APIs and products. He previously led development of the Cedar DBMS at Xerox PARC, the Sun Simplify database GUI, and SunSoft's ORB-database integration. He was a founder of SQL Access (a predecessor to ODBC), the founder and chair of the Object Data Management Group (ODMG), the co-creator of JDBC, the author of the world's first monograph on object/relational and object databases, and a recipient of the ACM Outstanding PhD Dissertation Award.

Selected Accomplishments

Independent Consultant
2007-
Independent consultant in database systems and engineering management. Currently serve on advisory board of Abrevity, Schooner, and MK7 Solar. Consulting for Sun and OPP.

Sun Microsystems 2006-7 Chief architect for Sun's Database Technology Group, working with open source database systems and internal projects. Focus on horizontal database scaling and efficient storage of objects, text, and relationship links.

2003-6
Deputy to Sun's Software CTO, evaluating projects and defining strategy, particular with respect to Sun's internal and external data management requirements.

2001-2 Worked in SunVentures group to evaluate potential investments and implement a strategy for Sun's investments in the enterprise software area.

2000- Served on board of directors of Clustra Systems, Pointbase, and IPAT. (Still on board of IPAT at the present time.)

1997-99 Contributed to the adoption and development of various components of J2EE (now Java EE) for use in a distributed multi-tier environment. Chaired J2EE Steering Committee. Key contributor to Sun's strategy on Java, database systems, and server platforms.

1995-96 Joined Sun's new JavaSoft Division, and created an "enterprise" Java group for server-side Java. Served as initial architect for the J2EE platform, which eventually evolved into Java EE. Co-created JDBC, contributed to EJB, and as initial acting manager, recruited the key architects and management that produced Java EE. Started and led Java Blend project in partnership with Baan.

1993-94 Served as a primary architect for several components of SunSoft's DOE (Distributed Object Environment) product.

1991-93 Founded the Object Database Management Group (ODMG), after ANSI, OMG, and other groups had made no progress towards object database standards. Served as chair and as editor for the group. ODMG-93 [Cattell 1993] was critical in allowing this entire technology area to proceed, since this industry did not have the benefit of a formal basis in research, or one large vendor endorsing an approach, as was the case for SQL.

1989 Wrote the world's first book on object-oriented and object-relational databases, in an effort to reduce confusion in this area. Earlier books were collections of papers about particular systems. There are now over a dozen books on this topic.

1989 Cofounded the SQL/Access Group, because relational vendors had no standard for SQL on the network or for the API requirements of more advanced graphical database interfaces. The SQL/Access call-level interface became the basis for Microsoft ODBC.

1988 Selected as Sun Microsystems Distinguished Engineer, along with 5 others at Sun in other technical areas. This position included setting Sun's overall technical direction with respect to databases, and consulting on various projects within the company that required assistance with respect to database technology.

1987 First researcher to study and to empirically demonstrate advantages of object database systems that were widely misunderstood, showing for engineering applications that their programming language integration and workstation data caching give these DBMSs substantially superior performance to traditional ones [Cattell 1987, 1992]. Previous work had dwelled on data modelling differences.

1987 Developed and successfully sold management on a new relational database strategy for Sun based on partnerships and joint engineering with leading vendors. This strategy proved very effective over the subsequent years. Database servers became over a billion dollars of Sun's business, several times as much as 1987 as a percentage.

1986-88 Served as Sun's second-level manager for database back-end and front-end technology, building a group of 20 top-notch engineers and two first-line engineering managers. Managed relationships with DBMS vendors and with major customers.

1984-86 As Sun's database engineering manager, with the help of two engineering reports in just 1.5 years, built and released the Sun Simplify product, an innovative GUI database front-end that provided entity-relationship database browsing, editing and schema design. This product inspired subsequent products both inside and outside of Sun. Coordinated the development, documentation, testing, marketing, and support of the product, and managed a 10-person follow-on product.

Xerox PARC 1978-84 As Xerox PARC research staff member, contributed to the Cedar programming environment and to the Cypress database system. Was primary architect and co-developer of an electronic mail database, a database editor/browser, and a spatial data manager [Cattell 1983]. Originated the idea of using an entity-relationship model as a powerful basis for hypertext-like browsing of an underlying database, for spatial display of relationships, for graphical schema design, and for queries; these ideas were used and cited in many successful database user interfaces in the industry. Also pioneered database modelling and caching techniques that were later utilized in object-oriented database products.

CMU 1978 Member of Carnegie-Mellon University research faculty. Co-developed PQCC compiler-compiler and ZOG hypertext systems. Originated the idea of using a hypertext interface to a database and the idea of using heuristic search for optimal code sequences based on a machine description in PQCC.

1978 Won ACM Outstanding Computer Science Doctoral Dissertation Award. Completed PhD in only 3.5 years after BS, with work in applying artificial intelligence to compiler construction. At the same time, contributed to a number of other research projects and was rated best TA in the introductory computer course.

U of Illinois 1974 Awarded Bronze Tablet (Top 1% of class, University of Illinois); Tau Beta Pi, Phi Beta Kappa honorary societies. 4.98 GPA (one B+ in four years of courses).
Top of Page

Employment and Education Experience

2007-
Independent consultant.

1984-2007 Sun Microsystems, Engineering Manager, then Second-Level Manager, then Distinguished Engineer.

1978-84 Xerox PARC Computer Science Lab: Member Research Staff.

1974-78 Carnegie-Mellon University: Completed PhD in Computer Science.

1970-74 University of Illinois: Completed BS in Computer Science and Psychology.
Top of Page

Selected Publications

J2EE Technology in Practice, with J. Inscore and enterprise partners, Addison-Wesley Publishers, 2001.

JDBC API Tutorial and Reference, Second Edition, with S. White, M. Fisher, G. Hamilton, and M. Hapner, Addison-Wesley Publishers, 1999.

"Enterprise Java Platform Data Acess", with S. White and S. Finkelstein, SIGMOD 1994.

The Object Database Standard: ODMG 3.0, Editor with D. Barry, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, San Mateo, California, 1999.

Java Database Access with JDBC, with G. Hamilton and M. Fisher, Addison-Wesley Publishers, 1997, revised 1998.

"Maintaining Object Relationships in a Distributed Environment," with B. E. Martin, in Proceedings Conference on Very Large Databases, to appear September 1994.

The Object Database Standard: ODMG-93, Editor, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, San Mateo, California, 1993.

"Experience with the ODMG Standard", in ACM Standards View 3 (3), September 1993.

"Object Operations Benchmark," with J. Skeen, in ACM Transactions on Database Systems, April 1992.

Object Data Management: Object-Oriented and Extended Relational Databases, Addison-Wesley Publishers, Reading, Mass, 1991, Revised 1994.

"An Engineering Database Benchmark," in J. Gray, Editor, The Benchmark Handbook, Morgan Kaufmann, 1991.

Next-Generation Database Systems, Editor, special issue of CACM 34 (10), October 1991.

"Object-Oriented Database User Interfaces", with T. Rogers, in Readings in Database Systems, M. Stonebraker, Editor, Morgan-Kaufmann, 1987. Click for PDF.

"Benchmarking Simple Database Operations", with W.B. Rubenstein and M. S. Kubicar, in Proceedings ACM SIGMOD Conference on Management of Data, San Francisco, May 1987.

"An Object-Oriented Interface to a Relational Database", with T. Learmont, in Object-Oriented Database Systems, K. Dittrich, Ed, Springer-Verlag, 1987.

Design and Implementation of a Relationship-Entity-Datum Data Model, Xerox PARC technical report CSL-83-4, March 1983. Click here for PDF.

Formalization and Automatic Generation of Code Generators, UMI Research Press, 1982.

"The Cedar DBMS", with M. Brown and S. Suzuki, in Proceedings ACM SIGMOD Conference on Management of Data, Ann Arbor, May 1981.

"Automatic Derivation of Code Generators from Machine Descriptions," in ACM Transactions on Programming Systems , 173-190, April 1980.

"An Overview of the Production-Quality Compiler-Compiler Project," with Leverett, B., Hobbs, S., Newcomer, N., Reiner, A., Schatz, B., and Wulf, W., in IEEE Computer 18, 8, August 1980.

"ISPS: A Retrospective View", with Parker, A., Crocker, S., and Thomas, D., International Symposium on Computer Hardware Description Languages and their Applications, Palo Alto, October 1979.

"Code Generation in a Machine-Independent Compiler," with Newcomer, J. M., and Leverett, B. W., in Proceedings ACM-SIGPLAN Symposium on Compiler Construction, Denver Colorado, August 1979.

The ISPS Computer Description Language, with Barbacci, M., Barnes, G., Siewiorek, D., technical report (revised version CMU-CS-79-137), Computer Science, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, August 1977.

A Survey and Critique of Some Models of Code Generation, technical report, Computer Science, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, November 1977.
TOP OF PAGE | SEND EMAIL


Career Biography
	Dr. R. G. G. "Rick" Cattell is an independent consultant in database systems and in engineering management. He previously worked as a Distinguished Engineer at Sun Microsystems, mostly recently on open source database systems and proprietary innovations in database systems. Dr. Cattell served for 20+ years at Sun Microsystems in management and senior technical roles, and for 10+ years in research at Xerox PARC and at Carnegie-Mellon University. Dr. Cattell is best known for his contributions to middleware and database systems --- particularly enterprise Java, object-oriented databases, object/relational mappings, and database interfaces. He is the author of several dozen papers and six books. He instigated Java DB and Java 2 Enterprise Edition, and was a contributor to a number of the Enterprise Java APIs and products. He previously led development of the Cedar DBMS at Xerox PARC, the Sun Simplify database GUI, and SunSoft's ORB-database integration. He was a founder of SQL Access (a predecessor to ODBC), the founder and chair of the Object Data Management Group (ODMG), the co-creator of JDBC, the author of the world's first monograph on object/relational and object databases, and a recipient of the ACM Outstanding PhD Dissertation Award.
Selected Accomplishments
Independent Consultant	2007-	Independent consultant in database systems and engineering management. Currently serve on advisory board of Abrevity, Schooner, and MK7 Solar. Consulting for Sun and OPP.
Sun Microsystems	2006-7	Chief architect for Sun's Database Technology Group, working with open source database systems and internal projects. Focus on horizontal database scaling and efficient storage of objects, text, and relationship links.
	2003-6	Deputy to Sun's Software CTO, evaluating projects and defining strategy, particular with respect to Sun's internal and external data management requirements.
	2001-2	Worked in SunVentures group to evaluate potential investments and implement a strategy for Sun's investments in the enterprise software area.
	2000-	Served on board of directors of Clustra Systems, Pointbase, and IPAT. (Still on board of IPAT at the present time.)
	1997-99	Contributed to the adoption and development of various components of J2EE (now Java EE) for use in a distributed multi-tier environment. Chaired J2EE Steering Committee. Key contributor to Sun's strategy on Java, database systems, and server platforms.
	1995-96	Joined Sun's new JavaSoft Division, and created an "enterprise" Java group for server-side Java. Served as initial architect for the J2EE platform, which eventually evolved into Java EE. Co-created JDBC, contributed to EJB, and as initial acting manager, recruited the key architects and management that produced Java EE. Started and led Java Blend project in partnership with Baan.
	1993-94	Served as a primary architect for several components of SunSoft's DOE (Distributed Object Environment) product.
	1991-93	Founded the Object Database Management Group (ODMG), after ANSI, OMG, and other groups had made no progress towards object database standards. Served as chair and as editor for the group. ODMG-93 [Cattell 1993] was critical in allowing this entire technology area to proceed, since this industry did not have the benefit of a formal basis in research, or one large vendor endorsing an approach, as was the case for SQL.
	1989	Wrote the world's first book on object-oriented and object-relational databases, in an effort to reduce confusion in this area. Earlier books were collections of papers about particular systems. There are now over a dozen books on this topic.
	1989	Cofounded the SQL/Access Group, because relational vendors had no standard for SQL on the network or for the API requirements of more advanced graphical database interfaces. The SQL/Access call-level interface became the basis for Microsoft ODBC.
	1988	Selected as Sun Microsystems Distinguished Engineer, along with 5 others at Sun in other technical areas. This position included setting Sun's overall technical direction with respect to databases, and consulting on various projects within the company that required assistance with respect to database technology.
	1987	First researcher to study and to empirically demonstrate advantages of object database systems that were widely misunderstood, showing for engineering applications that their programming language integration and workstation data caching give these DBMSs substantially superior performance to traditional ones [Cattell 1987, 1992]. Previous work had dwelled on data modelling differences.
	1987	Developed and successfully sold management on a new relational database strategy for Sun based on partnerships and joint engineering with leading vendors. This strategy proved very effective over the subsequent years. Database servers became over a billion dollars of Sun's business, several times as much as 1987 as a percentage.
	1986-88	Served as Sun's second-level manager for database back-end and front-end technology, building a group of 20 top-notch engineers and two first-line engineering managers. Managed relationships with DBMS vendors and with major customers.
	1984-86	As Sun's database engineering manager, with the help of two engineering reports in just 1.5 years, built and released the Sun Simplify product, an innovative GUI database front-end that provided entity-relationship database browsing, editing and schema design. This product inspired subsequent products both inside and outside of Sun. Coordinated the development, documentation, testing, marketing, and support of the product, and managed a 10-person follow-on product.
Xerox PARC	1978-84	As Xerox PARC research staff member, contributed to the Cedar programming environment and to the Cypress database system. Was primary architect and co-developer of an electronic mail database, a database editor/browser, and a spatial data manager [Cattell 1983]. Originated the idea of using an entity-relationship model as a powerful basis for hypertext-like browsing of an underlying database, for spatial display of relationships, for graphical schema design, and for queries; these ideas were used and cited in many successful database user interfaces in the industry. Also pioneered database modelling and caching techniques that were later utilized in object-oriented database products.
CMU	1978	Member of Carnegie-Mellon University research faculty. Co-developed PQCC compiler-compiler and ZOG hypertext systems. Originated the idea of using a hypertext interface to a database and the idea of using heuristic search for optimal code sequences based on a machine description in PQCC.
	1978	Won ACM Outstanding Computer Science Doctoral Dissertation Award. Completed PhD in only 3.5 years after BS, with work in applying artificial intelligence to compiler construction. At the same time, contributed to a number of other research projects and was rated best TA in the introductory computer course.
U of Illinois	1974	Awarded Bronze Tablet (Top 1% of class, University of Illinois); Tau Beta Pi, Phi Beta Kappa honorary societies. 4.98 GPA (one B+ in four years of courses). Top of Page
Employment and Education Experience
	2007-	Independent consultant.
	1984-2007	Sun Microsystems, Engineering Manager, then Second-Level Manager, then Distinguished Engineer.
	1978-84	Xerox PARC Computer Science Lab: Member Research Staff.
	1974-78	Carnegie-Mellon University: Completed PhD in Computer Science.
	1970-74	University of Illinois: Completed BS in Computer Science and Psychology. Top of Page
Selected Publications
	J2EE Technology in Practice, with J. Inscore and enterprise partners, Addison-Wesley Publishers, 2001.
	JDBC API Tutorial and Reference, Second Edition, with S. White, M. Fisher, G. Hamilton, and M. Hapner, Addison-Wesley Publishers, 1999.
	"Enterprise Java Platform Data Acess", with S. White and S. Finkelstein, SIGMOD 1994.
	The Object Database Standard: ODMG 3.0, Editor with D. Barry, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, San Mateo, California, 1999.
	Java Database Access with JDBC, with G. Hamilton and M. Fisher, Addison-Wesley Publishers, 1997, revised 1998.
	"Maintaining Object Relationships in a Distributed Environment," with B. E. Martin, in Proceedings Conference on Very Large Databases, to appear September 1994.
	The Object Database Standard: ODMG-93, Editor, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, San Mateo, California, 1993.
	"Experience with the ODMG Standard", in ACM Standards View 3 (3), September 1993.
	"Object Operations Benchmark," with J. Skeen, in ACM Transactions on Database Systems, April 1992.
	Object Data Management: Object-Oriented and Extended Relational Databases, Addison-Wesley Publishers, Reading, Mass, 1991, Revised 1994.
	"An Engineering Database Benchmark," in J. Gray, Editor, The Benchmark Handbook, Morgan Kaufmann, 1991.
	Next-Generation Database Systems, Editor, special issue of CACM 34 (10), October 1991.
	"Object-Oriented Database User Interfaces", with T. Rogers, in Readings in Database Systems, M. Stonebraker, Editor, Morgan-Kaufmann, 1987. Click for PDF.
	"Benchmarking Simple Database Operations", with W.B. Rubenstein and M. S. Kubicar, in Proceedings ACM SIGMOD Conference on Management of Data, San Francisco, May 1987.
	"An Object-Oriented Interface to a Relational Database", with T. Learmont, in Object-Oriented Database Systems, K. Dittrich, Ed, Springer-Verlag, 1987.
	Design and Implementation of a Relationship-Entity-Datum Data Model, Xerox PARC technical report CSL-83-4, March 1983. Click here for PDF.
	Formalization and Automatic Generation of Code Generators, UMI Research Press, 1982.
	"The Cedar DBMS", with M. Brown and S. Suzuki, in Proceedings ACM SIGMOD Conference on Management of Data, Ann Arbor, May 1981.
	"Automatic Derivation of Code Generators from Machine Descriptions," in ACM Transactions on Programming Systems , 173-190, April 1980.
	"An Overview of the Production-Quality Compiler-Compiler Project," with Leverett, B., Hobbs, S., Newcomer, N., Reiner, A., Schatz, B., and Wulf, W., in IEEE Computer 18, 8, August 1980.
	"ISPS: A Retrospective View", with Parker, A., Crocker, S., and Thomas, D., International Symposium on Computer Hardware Description Languages and their Applications, Palo Alto, October 1979.
	"Code Generation in a Machine-Independent Compiler," with Newcomer, J. M., and Leverett, B. W., in Proceedings ACM-SIGPLAN Symposium on Compiler Construction, Denver Colorado, August 1979.
	The ISPS Computer Description Language, with Barbacci, M., Barnes, G., Siewiorek, D., technical report (revised version CMU-CS-79-137), Computer Science, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, August 1977.
	A Survey and Critique of Some Models of Code Generation, technical report, Computer Science, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, November 1977. TOP OF PAGE \| SEND EMAIL