A database accelerator for energy-efficient query processing and optimization
Sebastian Haas, Oliver Arnold, Stefan Scholze, Sebastian Höppner, Georg Ellguth, Andreas Dixius, Annett Ungethüm, Eric Mier, Benedikt Nöthen, Emil Matúš, Stefan Schiefer, Love Cederstroem, Fabian Pilz, Christian Mayr, René Schüffny, Wolfgang Lehner, Gerhard Paul Fettweis · 2016
Data processing on a continuously growing amount of information and the increasing power restrictions have become an ubiquitous challenge in our world today. Besides parallel computing, a promising approach to improve the energy efficiency of current systems is to integrate specialized hardware. This paper presents a Tensilica RISC processor extended with an instruction set to accelerate basic database operators frequently used in modern database systems. The core was taped out in a 28 nm SLP CMOS technology and allows energy-efficient query processing as well as query optimization by applying selectivity estimation techniques. Our chip measurements show an 1000x energy improvement on selected database operators compared to state-of-the-art systems.