Oracle has chosen to offer a tightly integrated object solution with Oracle9i. Object technology permeates the Oracle9i server and is not offered as a thin veneer on top of an existing relational database. Oracle9i is an integrated product in three important ways:
It has a single architecture for both objects and relational data.
The object technology is combined with the latest advances in functionality for data warehousing and OLTP, such as partitioning and parallel queries.
It has consistent, interchangeable interfaces for accessing both relational data and objects (such as SQL, the Oracle Call Interface, Pro*C, SQLJ, JDBC, Oracle Objects for OLE, and so on).