To support modern warfighting, Military-Aerospace (MilAero) systems deploy in-memory databases to manage tremendous volumes of data, including tactical information, navigation data, system status, and more. MilAero systems have evolved into substantial computing platforms that are tightly integrated and continuously share information, both internally and with other systems. This presents multifaceted embedded database requirements, including high performance, concurrent access, high availability, complex searching, and reliability.

Download our white paper that examines the real-time database needs of military and aerospace embedded systems, and focuses on existing and emerging data management technology and its suitability to meet these requirements.

eXtremeDB, a small footprint Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) database, is playing a growing role in helping MilAero developers meet the need for a real-time, in-memory embedded database with high availability. Many firms, including Boeing, EADS, and SAIC, have found that the performance, reliability, and time-to-market benefits of a proven embedded database justify the cost.

Technological advances have made the use of “real” RAM databases an option in embedded MilAero systems. An in-memory embedded database operates near the speed of RAM access and eliminates the unpredictable latency accompanying file I/O and inter-process communication. In addition, with “eager, 2-safe” replication implemented via a time-cognizant protocol, in-memory data management offers the unsurpassed reliability of a high availability system with redundancy and failover capability, which can be further enhanced by the use of nonvolatile RAM (NVRAM).

When considering data management for MilAero equipment, developers and engineering managers must inspect potential solutions at multiple levels. Embedded database architecture must be streamlined and provide the performance needed for real-time systems. Maintaining data availability in the face of hardware or software failure must be addressed, usually with a redundant solution. Finally, developers must understand their database at the programmatic level, making source code availability a prerequisite.

eXtremeDB Embedded Database Features

• In-memory database; no file system required
• Embedded (not a client/server architecture)
• Blazingly fast – RAM database architecture yields micro-second transactions, even on modest hardware
• High availability, implemented via a time-cognizant two-phase commit protocol
• Optional transaction logging module for persistent data
• Optional SQL interface
• Tiny code size, starting from just 50 KB
• Very efficient storage manager – typical overhead is just 15-40 percent (meaning 1 MB of data needs just 1.15 – 1.4 MB of memory)
• No dynamic memory allocation; suitable for the most stringent safety requirements
• Highly portable; written in ANSI C, with no dependence on the C run-time library; the eXtremeDB embedded database can even run without an RTOS!
• XML interface to simplify data exchange with other XML-enabled systems
• Developer friendly – creates a type-safe, intuitive programming interface with extensive checking to speed development

• eXtremeDB in-memory embedded database
• In-Memory database with high availability
• SQL for eXtremeDB embedded database
• Perst All-Java database / All C# database

• Consumer electronics
• Industrial control
• Military and aerospace
• Communications equipment
• Finance and capital market applications