Re: Memory Alignment in Postgres

On Thu, Sep 11, 2014 at 02:54:36PM -0300, Arthur Silva wrote:
> Indeed I don't know any other architectures that this would be at an
> option. So if this ever moves forward it must be turned on at compile time
> for x86-64 only. I wonder how the Mysql handle their rows even on those
> architectures as their storage format is completely packed.
> 
> If we just reduced the alignment requirements when laying out columns in
> the rows and indexes by reducing/removing padding -- typalign, it'd be
> enough gain in my (humble) opinion.
> 
> If you think alignment is not an issue you can see saving everywhere, which
> is kinda insane...
> 
> I'm unsure how this equates in patch complexity, but judging by the
> reactions so far I'm assuming a lot.

If the column order in the table was independent of the physical layout,
it would be possible to order columns to reduce the padding needed. Not
my suggestion, just repeating a valid comment from earlier in the thread.

Regards,
Ken