Oracle on Tuesday described new EBCDIC character set compatibility features in Oracle AI Database for customers transitioning from legacy databases on IBM mainframes.
In its post, Oracle noted that EBCDIC compatibility has historically been one of the top technical challenges for enterprises re-platforming to use newer, ASCII-based databases while continuing to use proven legacy applications.
“Achieving this goal requires more than simply moving data. It requires preserving the EBCDIC compatibility on which existing applications depend,” wrote Michael Yau, VP for Oracle Database Globalization Engineering. The feature rollout “addresses two fundamental challenges of preserving EBCDIC compatibility: accurate character encoding conversion and preservation of EBCDIC binary ordering.”
He added: “These client character sets implement IBM Character Data Representation Architecture (CDRA) code page definitions, providing source-to-target character mappings that are compatible with IBM’s published standards. This enables accurate and predictable character encoding conversion during data migration and subsequent database client/server communication.”
Yao observed that this is important because these mainframe migrations can be very complex.
