Re: Fractal tree indexing

On 13.02.2013 18:43, Andrew Dunstan wrote:
>
> On 02/13/2013 11:20 AM, Tom Lane wrote:
>> Heikki Linnakangas <hlinnakangas(at)vmware(dot)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