Another week, another database launch. This time, surprisingly, it’s not yet another NoSQL offering. Instead, it’s a loose MySQL fork written by Nikita Shamgunov, former SQL Server engineer and ACM wunderkind, called MemSQL.
The MemSQL magic sauce is supposedly that it compiles SQL queries (I’m not sure how that makes it different from prepared statements, though until I benchmark it I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt). It seems to gain its speed by keeping most of the database resident in memory, so again, I don’t see what makes it so different from other in memory databases. So far, not much there.
MemSQL might employ a coding prodigy, but VoltDB has an in-memory database backed by Mike Stonebreaker, and only one of the two men has his own wikipedia entry. Yeah, I know that’s an Appeal to accomplishment, but I’ll change my tune when MemSQL provides something a dozen other databases already don’t (not that I want to imply it won’t… it’s just getting a bit too much of the TC-VC-Industrial Complex hype for my taste).
