Transaction processing system

Transaction processing is a style of computing that divides work into individual, indivisible operations, called transactions. A transaction processing system (TPS) or transaction server is a software system, or software/hardware combination, that supports transaction processing .

The first transaction processing system was SABRE, made by IBM for American Airlines, which became operational in 1970. Designed to process up to 83,000 transactions a day, the system ran on two IBM 7090 computers. SABRE was migrated to IBM System/360 computers in 1972, and became an IBM product first as Airline control Program (ACP) and later as Transaction Processing Facility (TPF). In addition to airlines TPF is used by large banks, credit card companies, and hotel chains.

The Hewlett-Packard NonStop system (formerly Tandem NonStop) was a hardware and software system designed for Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) introduced in 1976. The systems were designed for transaction processing and provided an extreme level of availability and data integrity.

Transaction processing is distinct from other computer processing models – batch processing, time-sharing, and real-time processing.

Batch processing is execution of a series of programs (jobs) on a computer without manual intervention. Several transactions, called a batch are collected and processed at the same time. The results of each transaction are not immediately available when the transaction is being entered; there is a time delay.

"Real time systems attempt to guarantee an appropriate response to a stimulus or request quickly enough to affect the conditions that caused the stimulus." Each transaction in real-time processing is unique; it is not part of a group of transactions.

Time sharing is the sharing of a computer system among multiple users, usually giving each user the illusion that they have exclusive control of the system. The users may be working on the same project or different projects, but there are usually few restrictions on the type of work each user is doing.

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