This is rather interesting. It seems that the folks at XtremeData are using Stratix IV FPGAs from Altera in their next-generation dbX family of database appliances designed specifically for the unconstrained analysis and exploration of large databases.

The dbX appliance is a fully-integrated platform incorporating all of the components of an analysis system: storage, computing, interconnect network, and database engine. The patented XtremeData computing module features SQL-in-Silicon hardware acceleration using a Stratix IV FPGA. The in-system programmability of Stratix IV FPGAs offers a versatile platform for the implementation of custom processing engines.

XtremeData has implemented Stratix IV FPGAs in a unique, patented module called the In-Socket Accelerator (ISA), which is pin compatible with x86 CPUs from Intel and AMD, and can physically sit in the secondary CPU socket. The Stratix IV FPGA-based ISA generates a 10X performance improvement over the CPU, while reducing power consumption by one-third. FPGA-based hardware acceleration enables XtremeData's dbX appliance to provide sustainable performance scaling from terabytes to petabytes.

The folks at Altera say that Stratix IV FPGAs continue to enable the latest high-performance computing (HPC) applications, where a highly demanding parallel processing architecture is essential to dramatically increase system performance while reducing the carbon footprint of data centers. The dbX architecture uniquely leverages the best of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) Linux server offerings, while seamlessly integrating SQL acceleration. This database appliance has created a highly-competitive new category of database analytics systems for use in business intelligence (BI) research and decision support systems (DSS). Key SQL operations are accelerated inside the Stratix IV FPGA, which allows the commodity server platform to generate radically greater processing throughput while reducing power consumption and data center operating costs.