Efficient co-processor utilization in database query processing

Specialized processing units such as GPUs or FPGAs provide great opportunities to speed up database operations by exploiting parallelism and relieving the CPU. However, distributing a workload on suitable (co-)processors is a challenging task, because of the heterogeneous nature of a hybrid processor/co-processor system. In this paper, we present a framework that automatically learns and adapts execution models for arbitrary algorithms on any (co-)processor. Our physical optimizer uses the execution models to distribute a workload of database operators on available (co-)processing devices. We demonstrate its applicability for two common use cases in modern database systems. Additionally, we contribute an overview of GPU-co-processing approaches, an in-depth discussion of our framework's operator model, the required steps for deploying our framework in practice and the support of complex operators requiring multi-dimensional learning strategies. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.