Don't look at Maria's SQL, look at MY SQL, pleads Oracle

Oracle says it has doubled the performance of its open source MySQL database when running over large datasets across more than 40 cores, as it strives to preserve its lead in a market thronging with credible contenders.

Oracle gave details of a "Development Milestone" release of version 5.7 of its MySQL database on Monday, alongside rival MariaDB going into version 10 of its eponymous system.

The widely used open source MySQL database has received replication, storage, schema, and throughput advances, the company wrote in its announcement.

"What we've done is – all the way from the top down – removed bottlenecks in terms of mostly mutexes and contentions," Oracle's veep of MySQL engineering Tomas Ulin told The Reg.

These changes include tweaks to the relational database's "InnoDB" storage engine, enhancements for semi-synchronous replication, and throughput improvements for queries to data held on solid-state disks.

By doing this, MysQL 5.7 demonstrates almost double the query-per-second performance of MySQL 5.6 on SysBench Read-Only Point Selects benchmarks.

"These performance enhancements are reached at scale when looking at 40 or 50 or 60 cores being used," Ulin explained. "On the low core counts you don't see it."

The company has also added features relating to geographical information systems (GIS) by incorporating spatial index support into InnoDB. This follows non-relational rival MongoDB investing many years in adding GIS features to its own datastore. ®