Fast Database Emerges from MIT Class, GPUs and Student's Invention - 0 views
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Gary Edwards on 26 Apr 13Awesome work! A world changing discovery i think. excerpt: "Mostak built a new parallel database, called MapD, that allows him to crunch complex spatial and GIS data in milliseconds, using off-the-shelf gaming graphical processing units (GPU) like a rack of mini supercomputers. Mostak reports performance gains upwards of 70 times faster than CPU-based systems. Related Stories The five elements of a data scientist's job. Read more» Podcast: A data scientist's approach to predictive analytics for marketers. Read more» Data scientist Edwin Chen on Twitter's business value. Read more» Geofeedia structures Twitter, social media data by location and time. Read more» Mostak said there is more development work to be done on MapD, but the system works and will be available in the near future. He said he is planning to release the new database system under and open source business model similar to MongoDB and its company 10gen. "I had the realization that this had the potential to be majorly disruptive," Mostak said. "There have been all these little research pieces about this algorithm or that algorithm on the GPU, but I thought, 'Somebody needs to make an end-to-end system.' I was shocked that it really hadn't been done." Mostak's undergraduate work was in economics and anthropology; he realized the need for his interactive database while studying at Harvard's Center for Middle Eastern Studies program. But his hacker-style approach to problem-solving is an example of how attacking a problem from new angles can yield better solutions. Mostak's multidisciplinary background isn't typical for a data scientist or database architect."
