SaS: SSD as SQL Database System

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Abstract

Every database engine runs on top of an operating system in the host, strictly separated with the storage. This more-than-half-century-old IHDE (In-Host-Database-Engine) architecture, however, reveals its limitations when run on fast flash memory SSDs. In particular, the IO stacks incur significant run-time overhead and also hinder vertical optimizations between database engines and SSDs. In this paper, we envisage a new database architecture, called SaS (SSD as SQL database engine), where a full-blown SQL database engine runs inside SSD, tightly integrated with SSD architecture without intervening kernel stacks. As IO stacks are removed, SaS is free from their run-time overhead and further can explore numerous vertical optimizations between database engine and SSD. SaS evolves SSD from dummy block device to database server with SQL as its primary interface. The benefit of SaS will be more outstanding in the data centers where the distance between database engine and the storage is ever widening because of virtualization, storage disaggregation, and open software stacks. The advent of computational SSDs with more compute resource will enable SaS to be more viable and attractive database architecture.