Falcon (storage engine)
{{short description|Storage engine for the MySQL relational database management systems}}
{{Infobox software
| name = Falcon
| logo =
| screenshot =
| caption =
| author = Jim Starkey
| developer = Sun Microsystems
| latest_release_version =
| latest_release_date =
| latest_preview_version = MySQL 6.0.9
| latest_preview_date = {{release date|2009|01|10}}
| operating_system = Cross-platform
| programming_language =
| genre = Database engine
| license = GNU General Public License
| website =
}}
Falcon is a discontinued{{Cite web | url=http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Database/Oracle-Discusses-MySQL-Database-Plans-854185/ | title=Oracle Discusses MySQL Database Plans }}{{Dead link|date=March 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} transactional storage engine being developed for the MySQL relational database management system. Development was stopped after Oracle purchased MySQL.{{Cite web|url=http://www.databasejournal.com/features/mysql/article.php/3876206/Oracle-Commits-to-MySQL-with-InnoDB.htm|title=Oracle Commits to MySQL with InnoDB|date=13 April 2010}} It was based on the Netfrastructure database engine. Falcon was designed to take advantage of Sun's ZFS file system.
Architecture analysis showed an interesting mixture of possible performance properties, while low level benchmarks on the first alpha release in 5.1.14-falcon showed that Falcon performed differently from both InnoDB and MyISAM.{{Cite web | url=http://www.mysqlperformanceblog.com/2007/01/12/falcon-storage-engine-design-review/ |title = Falcon Storage Engine Design Review|date = 2007-01-12}}{{Cite web | url=http://www.mysqlperformanceblog.com/2007/01/08/innodb-vs-myisam-vs-falcon-benchmarks-part-1/ |title = InnoDB vs MyISAM vs Falcon benchmarks - part 1|date = 2007-01-08}} It did better in several tests,{{Citation needed|date=August 2011}} worse in others, with inefficient support for the MySQL LIMIT operation a limitation. Its biggest advantage though is known to be ease of use; Falcon requires minimum maintenance and designed to reconfigure itself automatically to handle all types of loads efficiently.