Dateline: August 11, Austin
Pervasive PSQL v11 MC Release Candidate is here. If you haven’t already downloaded the beta (and even if you have), you should definitely download PSQL v11 MC RC and give it a test. What started two years ago as a fairly quiet, under the radar type product plan has turned into a full blown big list of features release.
Part 1 - Multi-core
Raise your hand if you’ve bought a server in the last year. If you have, it’s got a multi-core processor. Minimum would be a dual core, more likely a quad, and lots of newer boxes are coming with 8-cores. Now, raise your hand if you’ve designed your application with a lot of parallel processes to run on those multiple cores. Most companies have upgraded hardware, most haven’t written their applications to take advantage of it. Many applications are going to run more slowly as a result. (Managing multiple cores, cache and synchronizing everything creates a LOT of overhead.) For more on why this happens, check out the whitepaper from CITO Research - The Multi-core Dilemma.
The good news - Pervasive PSQL v11 has been redesigned to do a lot of things in parallel and is now optimized for multi-core hardware. For the details, check out the What’s New in Pervasive PSQL v11. Better yet download a trial. Or, you could start over with your current code, find which parts can be run in parallel, solve all of the issues related to synchronizing memory access, debugging, testing, etc. Probably only take a couple of years, if everything goes perfectly. Trust me, the simplest thing to do is go with PSQL v11.
Part 2 - IPv6
The end is near. Really. The current standard for Internet addresses, IPv4, is due to run out of addresses in less than a year. Check out http://penrose.uk6x.com/ for a countdown clock. What’s next - IPv6 - which will be using 128-bit addresses (instead of 32-bit with IPv4) and should last for a ridiculously long time. IPv4 had 4 billion addresses (sounds like a lot - but with 6 billion people on the planet and lots of devices, blogs, sites, etc. we were eventually going to run out).
IPv6 has 340,282,366,920,938,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 - or roughly, 340 undecillion (look it up, I did) addresses. That’s about 57 trillion billion addresses for each and every one of us. We won’t run out any time soon. The issue for you is that governments (Japan and US) and other large institutions are requiring IPv6 compatibility. More good news - PSQL v11 already supports IPv6. So when the end arrives, you’ll be ready.
Parts 3 through N - PDAC for RAD Studio 2009 and 2010, ADO.NET 3.5, 64-bit ODBC driver, etc.
As usual, Pervasive Engineering has done a fabulous job of adding all kinds of additional features and updates. I start sounding like Ron Popiel (think Ronco, pocket fisherman, veg-o-matic, inventor, and the greatest TV pitchman ever) - but wait, there’s more. Here’s what else you get with PSQL v11:
- 64-bit ODBC driver
- PDAC for RAD Studio 2009 and 2010
- ADO.NET 3.2 and 3.5 with Entity Framework Support
- Telephone activation
- New releases of AuditMaster and DataExchange - and soon Backup Agent
- Backward compatible, simple upgrade
Pervasive PSQL v11 helps you skip over some really huge technical hurdles (multi-core and IPv6) and adds a boatload of cool extra features. To get all of the details, go to the trials section of the Pervasive website and/or check out the Pervasive PSQL v11 FAQ.
It’s awesome.