Hi In looking at current developments in computers, it seems we're nearing a point where a fundamental change may be possible in databases... Namely in-memory databases which could lead to huge performance improvements.
A good starting point is to look at memcached, since it provides proof that it's possible to interconnect hundreds of machines into a huge memory cluster with, albeit, some issues on reliability. For more info on memcached, try: http://www.socialtext.net/memcached/index.cgi?faq The sites that use it see incredible performance increases, but often at the cost of not being able to provide versioned results that are guaranteed to be accurate. The big questions are then, how would you create a distributed in-memory database? Another idea that may be workable Everyone knows the main problem with a standard cluster is that every machine has to perform every write, which leads to diminishing returns as the writes consume more and more of every machine's resources. Would it be possible to create a clustered environment where the master is the only machine that writes the data to disk, while the others just use cached data? Or, perhaps it would work better if the master or master log entry moves from machine to machine with a commit coinciding with a disk write on each machine? Any other ideas? It seems to be a problem worth pondering since in-memory databases are possible. Thanks Dan ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 4: Have you searched our list archives? http://archives.postgresql.org
