Abstract: In order to design a new kind of mobile database management system (DBMS)more suitable for mobile computing than the existent DBMS, the essence of database systems in mobile computing is analyzed. An opinion is introduced that the mobile database is a kind of dynamic distributed database, and the concept of virtual servers to translate the clients' mobility to the servers' mobility is proposed. Based on these opinions, a kind of architecture of mobile DBMS, which is of versatility, is presented. The architecture is composed of a virtual server and a local DBMS,the virtual server is the kernel of the architecture and its functions are described. Eventually,the server kernel of a mobile DBMS prototype is illustrated.