Chapter 2. Oracle Architecture

The basic fundamentals of the Oracle architecture have remained constant since Oracle's modern versions (8i, 9i). That architecture has a lot of history, and with it a respected record of stability and performance. This is not to say that there aren't significant improvements in Oracle 10g, there are. However, the base architecture has not changed significantly and that is also true of changes between Oracle10g and Oracle10g R2.

The Oracle Database is defined by Oracle to be a collection of data treated as a unit. The purpose of the database is to store and retrieve data. All other components are simply additional features designed to aid in that task. Thus, the Oracle Database server is the set of programs and utilities that work together to help you retrieve that data in a secure and efficient manner.