"Steve Swanson and Yannis Papakonstantinou combine their hardware architecture and database expertise in the project "Re-engineering Database Systems for Fast Solid State Drives", which was recently awarded $500,000 by the National Science Foundation.
A new class of non-volatile, solid-state memories (e.g., phase-change memory, spin-torque MRAMs, and the memristor) are emerging that promise to revolutionize the way that computer systems store and
process data. Getting the full benefit of these new memories requires us to re-engineer database systems. This project is analyzing the implications for these new memories on database systems and devising now hardware and software mechanisms to improve performance in transacting with the database, improve performance in analyzing Big Data and reduce energy consumption.
process data. Getting the full benefit of these new memories requires us to re-engineer database systems. This project is analyzing the implications for these new memories on database systems and devising now hardware and software mechanisms to improve performance in transacting with the database, improve performance in analyzing Big Data and reduce energy consumption.
The potential impacts of these optimizations is wide-reaching. Database (in various forms) constitute the heart of the cloud computing infrastructure that supports many of the "killer apps" that are driving technologies forward. Leveraging these new technologies, will make it cheaper, easier, and greener to implement existing applications and will enable new applications that are not currently possible."
