Deadlock-free joins in DB-mesh, an asynchronous systolic array accelerator

Abstract

Previous database accelerator proposals such as the Q100 provide a fixed set of database operators, chosen to support a target query workload. Some queries may not be well-supported by a fixed accelerator, typically because they need more resources/operators of a particular kind than the accelerator provides. By Amdahl's law, these queries become relatively more expensive as they are not fully accelerated. We propose a second-level accelerator, DB-Mesh, to take up some of this workload. DB-Mesh is an asynchronous systolic array that is more generic than the Q100, and can be configured to run a variety of operators with configurable parameters such as record widths. We demonstrate DB-Mesh applied to nested loops joins, an operator that is not directly supported on the Q100. We show that a naïve implementation has the potential for deadlock, and show how to avoid deadlock with a careful design. We also demonstrate how the data flow policy used in the array influences system throughput.