AltSql Core and Six Prototypes Built Around It

AltSql Core is the engine the project started with. It keeps key-value data and time-series readings on a device, answers SQL on a gateway, and copies the same records to both, byte for byte. It is the foundation, and it goes onto real chips first.

Around it now sit six prototypes. Each takes Core’s idea to one more problem in how devices keep, search and share their data. Each is small: one C file of 931 to 1,923 lines, with its own tests, measured results and a live demo on the live demo page.

The Six

• AltSql Ask sends one SQL question to a whole fleet. Every device answers from its own records, and only the answers come back.
• AltSql Vector turns vibration into 32-byte fingerprints, names what a machine is doing by the closest one it was taught, and flags what it was never taught.
• AltSql Wave keeps raw vibration bursts on the device, compressed without losing a bit, and sends the gateway only the figures worth searching.
• AltSql Mesh keeps one shared table on every device of a fleet, with no gateway and no server. Devices catch each other up whenever they meet.
• AltSql Realtime gives a control loop storage where every write has a known limit, worked out before the device runs.
• AltSql Instant is storage for MRAM and FRAM, where a write is kept the moment its call returns.

How They Relate to Core

Four of them are layers on top of AltSql Core: Ask, Vector, Wave and Mesh keep their data in it. The other two are storage layers of their own and use none of Core’s code. Instant’s records are Core’s, byte for byte, and it speaks Core’s sync, so a gateway running Core takes them as they are. Realtime keeps records of its own and shares Core’s flash driver interface, so a device’s flash driver for Core serves it as well.

That is why the family stays one project. Five of the six keep their records in Core’s format, and Realtime runs on the same flash drivers. The breadth shows how far one small format can go. It doesn’t change the order of work: AltSql Core proves itself on hardware first.

Where It Stands

Every engine works and is tested on a PC, in simulation, and Vector and Wave on recorded vibration as well. None of them has run on a microcontroller yet, and no figure on this site comes from one. AltSql Core’s Beta puts it on real boards. Each prototype’s Beta follows, five of them on the same boards and Instant on boards with MRAM and FRAM. The roadmap has both.

An eighth engine, AltSql Private, would give a gateway totals across devices without their individual readings. It is on hold until an outside security review.

The engines page has a section on each, with the figures its Alpha measured, and the posts that follow take the prototypes one at a time.