On 13.02.2013 18:43, Andrew Dunstan wrote:
On 02/13/2013 11:20 AM, Tom Lane wrote:
Heikki Linnakangas <hlinnakan...@vmware.com> writes:
The basic idea of a fractal tree index is to attach a buffer to every
non-leaf page. On insertion, instead of descending all the way down to
the correct leaf page, the new tuple is put on the buffer at the root
page. When that buffer fills up, all the tuples in the buffer are
cascaded down to the buffers on the next level pages. And recursively,
whenever a buffer fills up at any level, it's flushed to the next level.
[ scratches head... ] What's "fractal" about that? Or is that just a
content-free marketing name for this technique?
And if that's all it is then I have some doubt about its patentability.
For one thing I'd be mildly surprised if there weren't prior art. But of
course, IANAL :-)
Agreed, but IANAL either. The papers the GiST buffering build algorithm
was based pre-dates Tokutek's fractal indexes, for starters. Of course,
all I know about fractal indexes is what I've read on some presentation
slides on the 'net, so I might be missing something.
- Heikki
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