4 ms·

In between the 10 years of these two releases, there was also Microsoft's TerraServer, more like google earth but wanted to show MS SQL server's power of being

In between the 10 years of these two releases, there was also Microsoft's TerraServer, more like google earth but wanted to show MS SQL server's power of being able to store terrabytes of data. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terraserver.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terraserver.com

mc32 5y ago
Yeah I think they had a deal with Compaq or something for some aspect of (commodity) hardware.
- NelsonMinar 5y ago
  DEC, which Compaq bought. http://jimgray.azurewebsites.net/papers/msr_tr_98_17_terraserver.pdf http://jimgray.azurewebsites.net/papers/msr_tr_98_17_terrase... DEC Alpha was the first readily available 64 bit architecture for micro/mini computer sizes. Terraserver was in part a demo of how powerful that was. So was Altavista, the first really successful Web search engine. It started as a DEC research demo program.
twoodfin 5y ago
Terraserver was definitely one of those “Wow!” moments of the early web. Lots of detail on the architecture, in a paper with Jim Gray as a co-author: https://jimgray.azurewebsites.net/papers/msr_tr_99_29_terraserver.pdf https://jimgray.azurewebsites.net/papers/msr_tr_99_29_terras... One of the hottest applications on the Internet of the time, and they hosted it on 8 servers!
sundvor 5y ago
It would almost be amiss not to mention the amazing work done by Asobo and Microsoft on Flight Simulator 2020 in this context. The whole world has come to life with such beauty as I would never have been able to imagine when I first saw Flight Simulator in the early 80s. Mind you as children we were perfectly able to fill in the blanks. Yet, the latest version with its highly variable and dynamic weather systems, with spectacular lighting, has really hit the mark for me. It too uses Microsoft's storage to access data impossible to contain locally in entirety, be it Azure based this time. It would be interesting to learn more about this transition, if related.

mc32 5y ago

Yeah I think they had a deal with Compaq or something for some aspect of (commodity) hardware.

NelsonMinar 5y ago
DEC, which Compaq bought. http://jimgray.azurewebsites.net/papers/msr_tr_98_17_terraserver.pdf http://jimgray.azurewebsites.net/papers/msr_tr_98_17_terrase... DEC Alpha was the first readily available 64 bit architecture for micro/mini computer sizes. Terraserver was in part a demo of how powerful that was. So was Altavista, the first really successful Web search engine. It started as a DEC research demo program.

twoodfin 5y ago

Terraserver was definitely one of those “Wow!” moments of the early web. Lots of detail on the architecture, in a paper with Jim Gray as a co-author: https://jimgray.azurewebsites.net/papers/msr_tr_99_29_terraserver.pdf https://jimgray.azurewebsites.net/papers/msr_tr_99_29_terras... One of the hottest applications on the Internet of the time, and they hosted it on 8 servers!

sundvor 5y ago

It would almost be amiss not to mention the amazing work done by Asobo and Microsoft on Flight Simulator 2020 in this context. The whole world has come to life with such beauty as I would never have been able to imagine when I first saw Flight Simulator in the early 80s. Mind you as children we were perfectly able to fill in the blanks. Yet, the latest version with its highly variable and dynamic weather systems, with spectacular lighting, has really hit the mark for me. It too uses Microsoft's storage to access data impossible to contain locally in entirety, be it Azure based this time. It would be interesting to learn more about this transition, if related.