When data management systems meet approximate hardware : Challenges and opportunities

Abstract

Recently, approximate hardware designs have got many research interests in the computer architecture community. The essential idea of approximate hardware is that the hardware components such as CPU, memory and storage can trade off the accuracy of results for increased performance, reduced energy consumption, or both. We propose a DBMS ApproxiDB with its design, implementation and optimization aware of the underlying approximate hardware. ApproxiDB will run on a hybrid machine consisting of both approximate hardware and precise hardware (i.e., the conventional hardware without sacrificing the accuracy). With approximate hardware, ApproxiDB can efficiently support the concept of approximate query processing, without the overhead of pre-computed synopses or sampling techniques. More importantly, ApproxiDB is also beneficial to precise query processing, by developing non-trivial hybrid execution mechanisms on both precise and approximate hardware. In this vision paper, we sketch the initial design of ApproxiDB, discuss the technical challenges in building this system and outline an agenda for future research.