MySQL on Linux Optimized for Intels Itanium 2

MySQL AB on Tuesday announced two landmarks for its open-source MySQL database: optimization for the 64-bit Intel Itanium 2 processor running the Linux operating system, as well as the labeling of Version 4.0 as being at production level.

The leap to 64-bit hones the MySQL database for targeting large databases, data mining and other enterprise applications, according to Sam Al-Schamma, director of European Developer Programs at Intel. “Running MySQL on the combination of Linux and the Itanium 2 platform allows organizations to get the most out of their infrastructure by combining an industry-standard 64-bit platform with the speed, stability and low cost of a proven open-source database,” he said in a statement.

MySQL is already available on all major Linux distributions, Unix, Mac OS X and Windows operating systems. MySQL for Linux running on an Itanium 2 platform is now available for download at MySQLs site.

Separately, the company announced that Version 4.0 is now production-level, having passed through a gauntlet of three months worth of testing in live environments.

Michael Widenius, chief technology officer and co-founder of MySQL AB, of Uppsala, Sweden, said in a release that, although development releases of 4.0 have been out for over a year, many MySQL users have waited for the database to go production before upgrading. “Now that its been thoroughly tested by thousands of users, with no major bugs having been found in many months, we are confident that Version 4.0 can be used reliably in any MySQL implementation—whether its in the enterprise, embedded in third-party software or in a large Web application,” he said.

New features of Version 4.0 are designed to make the software more suitable for mission-critical, heavy-load database systems and to optimize performance as an embedded database. MySQL 4.0 includes a query cache thats designed to improve performance in applications with repetitive queries, full-text indexing, searching on packed indexes, bulk inserts and other optimizations for faster query execution.

Starting with the newest release, 4.0.12, Version 4 is now the standard code base for all MySQL database downloads. Information on more features is available at MySQLs site.

The MySQL database server is available without fee under the GNU General Public License. Details on MySQLs pricing for commercial, non-GPL licenses is available here.

This story was modified after its original posting to correct the identification of Al-Schamma.

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