Claiming to be first out with much-anticipated bit-map indexing, Red Brick Systems Inc has integrated a TargetIndex bit-mapping mechanism with StarIndex analysis technology in a new 4.0 release of its Warehouse relational database software. Red Brick said it will enable users to analyse and identify trends and patterns in their businesses in detail not previously available. TargetIndex exploits data indexing subtleties within bit mapping technology to retrieve data. It performs straight bit-mapping for low-selectivity indexing, clustered bit-mapping for medium-selectivity indexing, and b-tree mapping for high-selectivity indexing. StarIndex improves transaction processing performance by parcelling data into subsets for easy access and analysis against past patterns and attributes. Los Gatos, California-based Red Brick said it is ahead of Oracle and Sybase bit-mapped indexing plans and claimed that it won’t offer any of the mixed bit-map and b-tree indexing it has. It describes Sybase’s incremental indexing as slow and Oracle’s as poor. Version 4.0 is claimed to support Terabyte-sized data stores, plus on-line and near-line optical disk storage for older and less frequently accessed data, freeing up space for newer information. Load processing upgrades include a new algorithm that can accept or reject logic during data loading, time formatting capabilities, and accommodation of a broader range of data. Red Brick said Warehouse is used by manufacturing, telecommunications, retail, financial, distribution, and health care industries and government to forecast, target and analyse logistics and distribution, consumer trends, rates and usage, budgets and sales. Red Brick Warehouse 4.0 ships from December 4 from $37,500 to $600,000. Red Brick is aiming for an initial public offering next year.
