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Oracle, for example has a typical client server architecture, and a memory cache (SGA) with some background processes.

This is one way of designing a database. Are there databases out there which have been designed fundamentally in different ways than this?

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Why do you say Oracle is "client server"? – gbn Oct 15 '11 at 14:26
@gbn: I did not understand your question. Oracle is a client server model, where a user process (client) connects to a server process (server) to do work. – Lazer Oct 15 '11 at 14:42
In that case, aren't all RBDMS (which includes LDAP systems, mail servers etc) are client-server. How can you have otherwise? – gbn Oct 15 '11 at 14:44
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FWIW sqlite is not client-server in the way most RDBMSs are, and neither are other file-based dbs like Jet. – Jack Douglas♦ Oct 15 '11 at 20:16
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@Lazer - I'm just closing this until you get back to me - we're very happy to open it up again if you edit... or can give us some direction via the comments to help you edit it. – Jack Douglas♦ Oct 17 '11 at 16:01
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closed as not a real question by gbn, Jack Douglas♦ Oct 17 '11 at 15:57

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, see the FAQ.

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Most databases are client/server, although some embedded databases can be used purely like libraries, and share the application's address-space.

The server architecture can vary between databases, and differ from what you described too. MySQL runs entirely as a single process (with multiple threads). It does not require any OS shared memory segments or inter-process communication.

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