Hitachi America's Embedded Business Group has updated its C/C++/Java RDBMS (relational database management system) for embedded and mobile applications like mobile phones, GPS gadgets, televisions, and set-top boxes. Entier 2.2 adds features aimed at helping developers more easily implement consumer-friendly search capabilities under multitasking operating systems such as embedded Linux.

Hitachi first shipped Entier for Linux a year ago, at last year's Embedded Systems Conference in Boston. With a footprint below 1MB, Entier nonetheless aims to provide sophisticated searching capabilities, like progressive letter-by-letter search execution, geospatical searches like “search along route” and “in area,” and complex Boolean searches.

Hitachi Entier RDBMS architecture
(Click to enlarge)

Hitachi lists the new features in Entier 2.2 as follows:

• “Data Manipulation Language” level-locking, said to allow multiple threads to execute SQL statements concurrently, with reduced contention and deadlocking
• Support for multiple databases, said to allow for faster, more targeted data updates
• A new “binary update utility” said to be faster than SQL updates for each record, and doesn't lock database
• Improved search performance with short text strings

Additional touted (previously available) features include:

• Conceptual search simplifies multimedia recommendations and playlist auto-generation
• Search supports “AND,” “OR” and “EXCEPT”
• Applications can define up to 64 keyword aliases

Additionally, Hitachi claims that Entier “benchmarks 50 to 2,000 times faster than other embedded RDBMS.” Another touted advantage is that less code need be written to implement user-friendly search capabilities.

Hiroshi Nakamur, GM, stated, “The improvements announced today will [bring] consumers a greater ability to search the way they think.”

In a statement released by Hitachi, Jason Pettit, director of Linux Platforms at Wind River, commented, “The ability to execute multiple simultaneous searches within the database helps developers using device software platforms such as [Linux] create differentiated applications, deliver an advanced customer search experience, and generate new revenue streams by providing periodic updates to device content.”

Hitachi in January announced a version of Entier tailored specially for Wind River Linux.

No pricing or availability details for Entier 2.2 were provided. Entier in general supports development hosts running Red Hat Linux ES3/ES4/ES5 or Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista. It supports target environments that include embedded Linux, Windows CE, Windows Mobile, VxWorks, T-Kernel, ITRON, Nucleus PLUS, and “others by customer requirement.”

 
This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.