Charles Bachman

2.1. Early Life and Education

Charles Bachman was born on December 11, 1924, in Manhattan, Kansas. His father, Charles Bachman Jr., was a prominent figure in collegiate football, serving as the head football coach at Kansas State College at the time of Bachman's birth. The family later moved to East Lansing, Michigan, where Charles attended high school. His father continued his coaching career at Michigan State College from 1933 to 1946.

After his military service, Bachman enrolled at Michigan State College, graduating in 1948 with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. During his time there, he was a member of Tau Beta Pi, an engineering honor society. He continued his academic pursuits at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a master's degree in mechanical engineering in 1950. Additionally, he completed three-quarters of the requirements for an MBA from the university's renowned Wharton School.

2.2. Military Service

During World War II, Charles Bachman joined the United States Army. From March 1944 through February 1946, he served in the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Corps within the South West Pacific theater of World War II. His service took him to locations such as New Guinea, Australia, and the Philippine Islands. It was during this period that he gained his initial exposure to and practical experience with fire control computers, which were used for aiming 3.5 in ^{(90 mm)} guns.

3.1. Dow Chemical

In 1950, following his graduation, Bachman began his professional career at Dow Chemical in Midland, Michigan. By 1957, his expertise led him to become Dow's first data processing manager. During his tenure at Dow, he collaborated with the IBM user group SHARE on the development of a new version of report generator software, which became known as 9PAC. However, the planned order for the IBM 709 computer, which would have utilized this software, was ultimately canceled before its arrival.

3.2. General Electric

Bachman joined General Electric in 1960. It was here that he made one of his most significant contributions: the development of the Integrated Data Store (IDS) by 1963. IDS was one of the earliest database management systems, utilizing what would later be termed the navigational database model, and was integrated into GE's Manufacturing Information And Control System (MIACS) product.

While working with the customer Weyerhaeuser, Bachman further innovated by developing the first multiprogramming network access to the IDS database in 1965. This pioneering system was an early form of online transaction processing and was named WEYCOS. Later, at GE, he also developed the "dataBasic" product, which provided database support for users of the BASIC programming language on timesharing systems. In 1970, General Electric sold its computer business to Honeywell Information Systems, leading Bachman and his family to relocate from Phoenix, Arizona to Lexington, Massachusetts.

3.3. Cullinane Information Systems / Cullinet

In 1981, Bachman transitioned to Cullinane Information Systems, a smaller firm that later rebranded as Cullinet. This company offered a version of IDS known as IDMS, which was specifically designed to operate on IBM mainframes. His involvement with IDMS further solidified his influence in the commercial database market.

3.4. Bachman Information Systems

In 1983, Charles Bachman founded his own company, Bachman Information Systems. The company specialized in developing a line of computer-aided software engineering (CASE) products. The flagship product was the BACHMAN/Data Analyst, which provided graphical support for the creation and maintenance of Bachman diagrams. This product was notably featured in IBM's Reengineering Cycle marketing program, which encompassed:

• The reverse engineering of obsolete mainframe databases.
• Data modeling.
• Forward engineering to new physical databases.
• Optimization of physical database designs for performance and specific database management system characteristics.

In 1991, Bachman Information Systems successfully conducted its initial public offering (IPO), with its shares trading on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol BACH. The stock reached a high of 37.75 USD in February 1992 but declined to 1.75 USD by 1995. In 1996, his company merged with Cadre Technology to form Cayenne Software. Bachman served as the president of the newly formed company for one year before retiring to Tucson, Arizona. He continued to serve as chairman of the board for Cayenne Software, which was subsequently acquired by Sterling Software in 1998.

4.1. Integrated Data Store (IDS)

The Integrated Data Store (IDS), developed by Bachman at General Electric in 1963, stands as one of the earliest and most influential database management systems. IDS was a pioneering example of a navigational database model, where data records were linked together in a network structure, allowing programs to "navigate" through the data by following these links. This approach contrasted with later relational models but laid crucial groundwork for how data could be organized and accessed efficiently within computer systems. Its development was a critical step in moving beyond simple file processing to more complex, integrated data management.

4.2. Bachman Diagrams

Bachman diagrams, also known as data structure diagrams, are a graphical notation developed by Bachman for data modeling and system design. These diagrams provide a clear and intuitive way to represent the relationships between different data entities within a database. They illustrate record types (entities) as boxes and the relationships between them as lines, often indicating cardinality (one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many). Bachman Diagrams became a fundamental tool for database designers and software engineers, simplifying the process of visualizing and understanding complex data structures and their interdependencies. The BACHMAN/Data Analyst product from his own company provided graphic support for creating and maintaining these diagrams.

4.3. Other Technical Contributions

Beyond IDS and Bachman Diagrams, Charles Bachman made other notable technical contributions. These include the development of WEYCOS in 1965, an early online transaction processing system that provided the first multiprogramming network access to the IDS database for Weyerhaeuser. He also created "dataBasic," a product at General Electric that offered database support for users of the BASIC programming language in timesharing environments. Throughout his career, Bachman also contributed to various industry standards organizations, further influencing the direction of database technology and information systems.

5.1. Turing Award

In 1973, Charles Bachman was awarded the Turing Award by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). This highly esteemed recognition, often referred to as the "Nobel Prize of Computing," was bestowed upon him for "his outstanding contributions to database technology." His work on the Integrated Data Store and his pioneering efforts in defining and implementing database management systems were central to this recognition.

5.2. Other Awards and Honors

In addition to the Turing Award, Bachman received several other significant accolades:

• Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society:** He was elected as a Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society in 1977, acknowledging his pioneering work in database systems.
• National Medal of Technology and Innovation:** In 2012, Bachman was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. This honor recognized his "fundamental inventions in database management, transaction processing, and software engineering."
• ACM Fellow:** He was named an ACM Fellow in 2014 for "contributions to database technology, notably the integrated data store."
• Computer History Museum Fellow:** In 2015, he was inducted as a Fellow of the Computer History Museum for "his early work on developing database systems."

6.1. Selected Publications

A selection of his key publications includes:

• 1962. "Precedence Diagrams: The Key to Production Planning, Scheduling and Control." In: ProCo Features. Supplement No 24, August 24.
• 1965. "Integrated Data Store." in: DPMA Quarterly, January 1965.
• 1969. "Software for Random Access Processing." in: Datamation April 1965.
• 1969. "Data Structure Diagrams." in: DataBase: A Quarterly Newsletter of SIGBDP. vol. 1, no. 2, Summer 1969.
• 1972. "Architecture Definition Technique: Its Objectives, Theory, Process, Facilities, and Practice." co-authored with J. Bouvard. in: Data Description, Access and Control: Proceedings of the 1972 ACM-SIGFIDET Workshop, November 29-December 1, 1972.
• 1972. "The Evolution of Storage Structures." In: Communications of the ACM vol. 15, no. 7, July 1972.
• 1972-73. "Set Concept for Data Structure." In: Encyclopedia of Computer Science, 1972-1973.
• 1973. "The Programmer as Navigator." 1973 ACM Turing Award lecture. In: Communications of the ACM vol. 16, no. 11, November 1973.
• 1974. "Implementation Techniques for Data Structure Sets." In: Data Base Management Systems, 1974.
• 1977. "Why Restrict the Modeling Capability of Codasyl Data Structure Sets?" In: National Computer Conference vol. 46, 1977.
• 1978. "Commentary on the CODASYL Systems Committee's Interim Report on Distributed Database Technology." National Computer Conference vol. 47, 1978.
• 1978. "DDP Will Be Infinitely Affected, So Managers Beware!" in: DM, March 1978.
• 1980. "The Impact of Structured Data Throughout Computer-Based Information Systems." In: Information Processing 80, 1980.
• 1980. "The Role Data Model Approach to Data Structures." In; International Conference on Data Bases, March 24, 1980.
• 1982. "Toward a More Complete Reference Model of Computer-Based Information Systems." Co-authored with Ronald G. Ross. In: Computers and Standards 1, 1982.
• 1983. "The Structuring Capabilities of the Molecular Data Model." In; Entity-Relationship Approach to Software Engineering. C. G. Davis, S. Jajodia, and R. T. Yeh. eds. June 1983.
• 1987. "A Case for Adaptable Programming." In: Logic vol. 2, no. 1, Spring 1987.
• 1989. "A Personal Chronicle: Creating Better Information Systems, with Some Guiding Principles." In: IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering vol. 1, no. 1, March 1989.

6.2. Archival Collections

Charles Bachman's extensive professional papers, spanning from 1951 to 2007, are preserved at the Charles Babbage Institute at the University of Minnesota. This collection includes documentation from his time at 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), and various professional organizations like the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) (1971-1982) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) (1978-1983), as well as several international standard organizations.

After his retirement, Bachman actively volunteered to help document the history of early software development. He delivered a lecture at the Computer History Museum in 2002 on the assembly of the Integrated Data Store and contributed an oral history to the ACM in 2004. In 2011, he provided another oral history to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).