An in-memory database built around the GPU
Described in simplest terms, Map-D starts out as an in-memory, SQL-compatible, database. Its genius comes in a radically new architecture that allows it to use both CPUs and GPUs, with high-performance GPU memory serving as a cache for the most frequently used data. CPU memory is then used as a larger, next-level, cache. Map-D also uses a column organization -- allowing it to make more effective use of the memory it has than a traditional organization by rows.
Map-D's distributed architecture even allows it to scale across multiple nodes for extremely large databases, as well as allowing the realtime insertion of new data. This realtime updating is likely one of the reasons that companies -- including Facebook and PayPal -- have expressed interest in evaluating Map-D's product for use in creating realtime analytic systems. The tweet visualization screenshot below links to the live demo (click on the image to run the actual demo), so you can experience some of the power and flexibility of Map-D for yourself. Note that the tweets in the demo are from a historical dataset and not being updated in realtime.
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