P2: An Extensible Lightweight DBMS

A lightweight database system (LWDB) is a high-performance, application-specific DBMS. It differs from a general-purpose (heavyweight) DBMS in that it omits one or more features and specializes the implementation of its features to maximize performance. Although heavyweight monolithic and extensible DBMSs might be able to emulate LWDB capabilities, they cannot match LWDB performance. In this paper, we explore LWDB applications, systems, and implementation techniques. We describe P2, an extensible lightweight DBMS, and explain how it was used to reengineer a hand-coded, highly-tuned LWDB used in a production system compiler (LEAPS). We present results that show P2-generated LWDBs for LEAPS executes substantially faster than versions built by hand or that use an extensible heavyweight DBMS