Template:Short description IBM System R is a database system built as a research project at IBM's San Jose Research Laboratory beginning in 1974,<ref> {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> led by Edgar Codd, to implement his ideas on relational databases.<ref name="rdbmsearlyyearsoh20070612">Template:Cite interview</ref> System R was a seminal project as the first implementation of SQL, which has since become the standard relational data query language. It was also the first system to demonstrate that a relational database could provide good transaction processing performance. Design decisions in System R, as well as some fundamental algorithm choices (such as the dynamic programming algorithm used in query optimization<ref>Template:Citation</ref>), influenced many later relational systems.
System R's first customer was Pratt & Whitney in 1977.<ref>Template:Citation.</ref> Not running on Unix hurt its popularity.Template:R