DEDICATED HARDWARE PROCESSOR FOR STRUCTURED QUERY LANGUAGE (SQL) TRANSACTIONS

• US 20080162876A1
• Filed: 12/28/2006
• Published: 07/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: HOTH, ROBERT A., RAMIREZ, JOAQUIN, MILLER, JOHN W., BOU-GHANNAM, AKRAM A.
• Application Number:
  US11/617,584
• Publication Number:
  US 20080162876A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 712/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2455 Query execution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/284 Relational databases

Abstract

The present solution can include a SQL coprocessor. The SQL coprocessor can comprise silicon-based logic within which a set of machine-readable instructions that are associated with one or more silicon-based components of a database architecture can be implemented. A silicon-based component can include a protocol interface component, a SQL parsing component, a calculation engine component, and/or an I/O handing component.

Claims

1. A SQL coprocessor comprising:

silicon-based logic within which a set of machine-readable instructions associated with at least one silicon-based component of a database architecture is implemented, said silicon-based component comprising at least one component selected from a group of components consisting of a protocol interface component, a SQL parsing component, a calculation engine component, and an I/O handling component.

2. The coprocessor of claim 1, wherein at least one of the group of components is a software-based component including software-encoded machine-readable instructions that consume processing cycles of a generic processor, wherein the silicon-based component executes machine-readable instructions that consume processing cycles of the silicon-based processor.

3. The coprocessor of claim 2, wherein a standard interface is used to exchange information between the software-based component and the silicon-based component, wherein the standard interface is at least one of an application program interface (API) and an application binary interface (ABI).

4. The coprocessor of claim 1, wherein the at least one silicon-based component includes an I/O handling component.

5. The coprocessor of claim 1, wherein the at least one silicon-based component includes a SQL parsing component.

6. The coprocessor of claim 1, wherein the at least one silicon-based component includes an I/O handling component and a SQL parsing component.

7. The coprocessor of claim 6, wherein a protocol interface component and the calculation engine component that interacts with the silicon-based component of claim 6 are software components.

8. The coprocessor of claim 1, wherein said at least one silicon-based component comprises at least two components selected from a group of components consisting of a protocol interface component, a SQL parsing component, a calculation engine component, and an I/O handling component.

9. The coprocessor of claim 1, wherein said at least one silicon-based component comprises at least three components selected from a group of components consisting of a protocol interface component, a SQL parsing component, a calculation engine component, and an I/O handling component.

10. The coprocessor claim 1, wherein the SQL coprocessor is a specialized portion of a generic processor.

11. The coprocessor of claim 10, wherein the generic processor includes a plurality of cores, said SQL coprocessor being implemented in a dedicated one the cores.

12. The coprocessor of claim 1, wherein the SQL coprocessor is a distinct processor connected directly to a motherboard to which a generic processor is connected.

13. The coprocessor of claim 1, wherein the SQL coprocessor is a distinct processor located within an expansion card, which is connected to a motherboard to which a generic processor is connected.

20. The of claim 14, wherein the steps of claim 1 are performed by at least one of a service agent and a computing device manipulated by the service agents, the steps being performed in response to a service request.

14. A method for improving speeds of SQL transactions comprising:

providing a silicon SQL processor that includes silicon-based logic within which a set of machine-readable instructions associated with at least one silicon-based component of a database architecture is implemented, said silicon-based component comprising at least one component selected from a group of components consisting of a protocol interface component, a SQL parsing component, a calculation engine component, and an I/O handling component;

receiving a SQL request;

performing at least one SQL transaction related to the SQL request, said SQL transaction utilizing the silicon SQL processor and the silicon-based logic; and

generating a result for the SQL request.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the at least one of the group of components is a software-based component implemented in software, said method further comprising:

the software-based component executing software encoded machine-readable instructions that consume processing cycles of a generic processor;

the silicon-based component executing the machine-readable instructions that consume processing cycles of the silicon-based processor.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

utilizing a standard interface to exchange information between the software-based component and the silicon-based component, wherein the standard interface is at least one of an application program interface (API) and an application binary interface (ABI).

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the silicon SQL processor is concurrently utilized by a plurality of different RDBMS engines, wherein each of the different RDBMS engines includes an engine-specific software-based component, which one component of the group of components.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein said at least one silicon-based component comprises at least two components selected from a group of components consisting of a protocol interface components, a SQL parsing component, a calculation engine component, and an I/O handling component.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein said at least one silicon-based component includes a SQL parsing component and an I/O handling component.