Sector7 | AI-Driven OpenVMS Migration and x86 OpenVMS Porting

Stay on OpenVMS, move to x86

The Rdb toolchain Oracle left behind

Oracle declined to port Rdb and CDD to x86 OpenVMS. Keep your application and your build as they are: these drop-in replacements answer to the names you already use, VX/CDD supplies the dictionary on OpenVMS and Linux and also interfaces to VSI's VDD on OpenVMS, and the database underneath becomes PostgreSQL, SQL Server, MySQL or Oracle. The VSI OpenVMS Boot Camp 2026 presentation covers SQL$PRE, SQL$MOD and the VX/SQL$PRE back end they share: SQL$PRE and SQL$MOD for x86 OpenVMS (PDF, 59 slides).

SQL$PRE (VX/SQL$PRE)

.SCO SECTOR7 .COB

Drop-in for the Rdb embedded-SQL precompiler.

Proven on HP's AVERTZ ACMS application.

SQL$MOD (VX/SQL$MOD)

.SQLMOD SECTOR7 .C/.H

Drop-in for the Rdb SQL module language compiler.

The same tool converted all of IKEA's 600+ Rdb SQLMOD files.

RDB$PRE (VX/RDML)

RDML SECTOR7 SQL

Two ways to use it: a drop-in for the Rdb RDML precompiler, or a converter that rewrites the RDML into standard embedded SQL.

VX/TUXEDO (for x86 OpenVMS)

ORACLE SECTOR7 x86

Wire compatible with Oracle Tuxedo 22.1.1.

Faster than Oracle Tuxedo in head-to-head runs: 1.80 times the calls per second at 16 clients.

Talk to an engineer

Move to native Linux

Every layer of OpenVMS, already rebuilt for Linux

A fast, AI-driven port needs nothing invented mid-project. Each part of your system has a Sector7 tool waiting for it, so the AI drives a toolchain that already exists.

Languages

COBOL FORTRAN BASIC PASCAL Ctranslated to standard compilersGnuCOBOL -fdec
Rdb database

VX/SQL$PRE(COBOL FORTRAN)VX/SQL$MOD VX/RDMLRdb to PostgreSQL or Oracle
Transaction processing

VX/ACMS VX/RTR VX/DMQ
Forms and screens

VX/DECFORMS VX/TDMS VX/FMS VX/SMG
Files and data

VX/RMS VX/FDL VX/DATAX
DCL and system

VX/DCL print and batch queues lock manager SORT/MERGE CLD
Runtime libraries

VX/RTcall-compatible LIB$, SYS$, STR$, OTS$, MTH$ and 15 more
Dictionary and build

VX/CDD VX/MSG VX/MMS

Start from your application

Rdb to PostgreSQL / Oracle

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Measured, not estimated

Faster than the Itanium original

Oracle Rdb on Itanium, against Sector7 VX/SQL$PRE on x86 to PostgreSQL. Same 8,192 input records and the same seven workloads, 57,344 queries a cycle.

37.8×faster

One full cycle373 s on Oracle Rdb on Itanium, 9.9 s with Sector7 VX/SQL$PRE on x86, 57,344 queries

Biggest improvements, per query

105.7×faster

Invoice, 3-table join

17.65 ms to 0.17 ms
93.3×faster

Invoice, 5-table join

17.41 ms to 0.19 ms
23.9×faster

Correlated subquery

4.60 ms to 0.19 ms

Time per query: before and after

Invoice, 3-table join

99% less time

Before: Oracle Rdb on Itanium 17.65 ms

After:

VX/SQL$PRE on x86 0.17 ms

Invoice, 5-table join

99% less time

Before: Oracle Rdb on Itanium 17.41 ms

After:

VX/SQL$PRE on x86 0.19 ms

Correlated subquery

96% less time

Before: Oracle Rdb on Itanium 4.60 ms

After:

VX/SQL$PRE on x86 0.19 ms

Queries per second, one full cycle

Oracle Rdb on Itanium

154queries per second

Sector7 VX/SQL$PRE on x86

5,812queries per second

One square = 100 queries a second. 57,344 queries in one full cycle, divided by the median cycle time.

See all 7 workloads and the full figuresHide the full figures

Time per query, by workload

Milliseconds per complete query, median of six runs. Shorter is faster.

Lookup, 32-byte payload 4.7× faster

0.69 ms

0.15 ms

Lookup, 256-byte payload 1.8× faster

0.26 ms

0.15 ms

Lookup, 1,024-byte payload 1.8× faster

0.27 ms

0.15 ms

Range, 64 orders 23.3× faster

4.61 ms

0.20 ms

Invoice, 3-table join 105.7× faster

17.65 ms

0.17 ms

Invoice, 5-table join 93.3× faster

17.41 ms

0.19 ms

Correlated subquery 23.9× faster

4.60 ms

0.19 ms

One full cycle of 57,344 queries

Seconds per cycle, median of six cycles. Every VX/SQL$PRE cycle took 9.561 to 10.457 s; every Rdb cycle took 372.550 to 373.583 s.

Median cycle 37.8× faster

373.0 s

9.9 s

Per-query times, in milliseconds per query. Sector7 VX/SQL$PRE on x86: OpenVMS x86 (t86) to PostgreSQL on RH8X. Oracle Rdb on Itanium: ia64.
Workload	Sector7 VX/SQL$PRE on x86	Oracle Rdb on Itanium	Speedup
Lookup, 32-byte payload	0.1465	0.6873	4.69×
Lookup, 256-byte payload	0.1472	0.2633	1.79×
Lookup, 1,024-byte payload	0.1511	0.2748	1.82×
Range, 64 orders	0.1982	4.6107	23.26×
Invoice, 3-table join	0.1669	17.6498	105.74×
Invoice, 5-table join	0.1865	17.4067	93.33×
Correlated subquery	0.1922	4.6008	23.93×

Complete cycles of 57,344 queries, in seconds.
Cycle	Sector7 VX/SQL$PRE on x86	Oracle Rdb on Itanium
Cycle 1	9.957	373.238
Cycle 2	9.816	372.550
Cycle 3	10.457	373.583
Cycle 4	9.915	372.926
Cycle 5	9.591	372.983
Cycle 6	9.561	372.575
Median cycle	9.866	372.955
All six cycles	59.297	2,237.855

Read-only workload. t86 is OpenVMS x86 as a KVM guest on an RH8X host, reaching PostgreSQL over virtio; hardware differs between the platforms. PostgreSQL uses prepared execution (plan_cache_mode=auto, 128 MiB shared_buffers); Rdb uses 4,096 process buffers, a different cache mechanism. Transactions including completion are included; connection setup, warm-up and reporting are excluded. Figures are the median of six block averages (block elapsed time divided by 8,192), not individual-query percentiles.