Oracle Introduces MySQL 5.5 Release Candidate

Enhancements in Performance, Availability, and Usability Underscore Oracle’s Continued Investment in MySQL

News Facts

• Continuing to deliver new innovations to MySQL,
  Oracle today announced the availability of the release candidate for
  MySQL 5.5, the world’s most popular open-source database, licensed under
  the GNU General Public License (GPL).
• Announced during the first MySQL Sunday
  event at Oracle OpenWorld, the MySQL 5.5 release candidate showcases
  the latest enhancements in performance and scalability, availability and
  usability.

Enhances Capabilities for Business Applications

The
MySQL 5.5 release candidate helps improve the performance and
scalability of applications across multiple operating environments,
including Windows, Linux, and Mac. Enhancements include:

• MySQL Server and InnoDB have been enhanced to provide optimum
  performance and scalability when running on the latest multi-CPU and
  multi-core hardware and operating systems.
• InnoDB is now the default storage engine for MySQL Server, delivering
  ACID transactions, referential integrity, and crash recovery.

• New semi-synchronous replication improves failover reliability by
  allowing the master to proceed without waiting for all the slaves to
  acknowledge. Once one slave acknowledges, the transaction can be
  committed. This also helps improve data integrity.
• Replication Heart Beat enables faster detection, diagnosis and
  correction of master/slave synchronization issues, helping improve the
  reliability and availability of data by reducing the risk and impact of
  master/slave synchronization issues.

• Improved index and table partitioning enables RANGE and LIST
  partitions to be defined on date, datetime, varchar, and char columns,
  simplifying and extending MySQL and adding flexibility to indexing and
  query tuning.
• DBAs and developers
  can save time using the ANSI/ISO standard SIGNAL/RESIGNAL syntax inside
  stored routines, including triggers, to raise an error condition
  invoking specific error handling within their applications.
• Enhanced diagnostics, including a new ERFORMANCE_SCHEMA, provide
  low-level diagnostics on MySQL server performance statistics, allowing
  DBAs to pinpoint resource-intensive processes and events, streamlining
  efforts and helping to enhance their productivity.

MySQL 5.5 Release Candidate Demonstrates Significant Performance Gains in Real-World Tests

In
recent benchmarks using the release candidate for MySQL 5.5, compared
to MySQL 5.1, results demonstrated marked performance improvements:

• On Windows: up to 1,500 percent performance gains for Read/Write operations, and up to 500 percent gain for Read Only(1).
• On Linux: up to 360 percent performance gain in Read/Write operations and up to 200 percent improvement in Read Only(2).

Supporting Quotes

• “We continue to invest in MySQL technology and support the thriving
  MySQL user community,” said Edward Screven, Oracle’s Chief Corporate
  Architect. “The availability of MySQL 5.5 release candidate is a
  testament to Oracle’s focus on helping not only LAMP users, but also
  Windows users maximize the performance and reliability of critical
  application environments while reducing cost. Oracle now has two
  superior database alternatives to SQLServer, both delivering better
  value and broader platform support to end users and ISVs.”
• “I’m really blown away by MySQL 5.5‘s improvements,” said Don
  MacAskill, CEO, SmugMug. “You can now have a whopping 128K transactions
  in flight. Best of all, it’s far more performant than it used to be.
  Thank you Oracle!”