The Teradata Parallel Architecture

"Fall seven times, stand up eight."

--Japanese Proverb
Teradata never falls, but it can stand up to incredible amounts of work because of parallel processing. Most databases crumble under the extreme pressures of data warehousing. Who could blame them with thousands of users, each asking a different question on Terabytes of data? Most databases were born for OLTP processing, while Teradata was born to be parallel. While most databases fall and dont get up Teradata remains outstanding and ready for more. Teradata has been parallel processing from the beginning which incredibly dates back to 1979 and is still the only database that loads data in parallel, backs-up data in parallel and processes data in parallel. The idea of parallel processing gives Teradata the ability to have unlimited users, unlimited power, and unlimited scalability. So, what is parallel processing? Here is a great analogy. It was 12 a.m. on a Saturday night and two friends were out on the town. One of the friends looked at his watch and said, "I have to get going." The other friend responded, "Whats the hurry?" His friend went on to tell him that he had to leave to do his laundry at the Laundromat. The other friend could not believe his ears. He responded, "What! Youre leaving to do your laundry on a Saturday night? Why dont you do it tomorrow?". His buddy went on to explain that there were only 10 washing machines at the laundry. "If I wait until tomorrow, it will be crowded and I will be lucky to get one washing machine. I have 10 loads of laundry, so I will be there all day. If I go now, nobody will be there, and I can do all 10 loads at the same time. Ill be done in less than an hour and a half." This story describes what we call "Parallel Processing". Teradata was born to be parallel, and instead of allowing just 10 loads of wash to be done simultaneously, Teradata allows for hundreds even thousands of loads to be done simultaneously.

A Logical View of the Teradata Architecture

"Kites rise highest against the wind not with it."

Sir Winston Churchill
Many of the largest data warehouses in the world are on Teradata. Teradata provides customers a centrally located architecture. This provides a single version of the truth and it minimizes synchronization. Having Teradata on your side is a sure win-ston. If Churchill had been a data warehouse expert, he would agree that most data warehouses eventually receive the blitz and stop working while Teradata has the strength from parallel processing to "never give up". Many data warehouse environments have an architecture that is not designed for decision support, yet companies often wonder why their data warehouse failed. The winds of business change can be difficult and starting with the right database is the biggest key to rising higher.

The user submits SQL to the Parsing Engine (PE). The PE checks the syntax and then the security and comes up with a plan for the AMPs. The PE communicates with the AMPs across the BYNET. The AMPs act on the data rows as needed and required.

The BYNET

"Not all who wander are lost."

J. R. R. Tolkien
The BYNET is the communication network between AMPs and PEs. Data and communication never wanders and is never lost. How well does the BYNET know communication? It is the lord of the things! How often does the PE pass the plan to the AMPs over the BYNET? Every time it makes it a hobbit! The PE passes the PLAN to the AMPs over the BYNET. The AMPs then retrieve the data from their disks and pass it to the PE over the BYNET. The BYNET provides the communications between AMPs and PEs so no matter how large the data warehouse physically gets, the BYNET makes each AMP and PE think that they are right next to one another. The BYNET gets its name from the Banyan tree. The Banyan tree has the ability to continually plant new roots to grow forever. likewise, the BYNET scales as the Teradata system grows in size. The BYNET is scalable. There are always two BYNETs for redundancy and extra bandwidth. AMPs and PEs can use both BYNETs to send and retrieve data simultaneously. What a network! The PE checks the users SQL Syntax; The PE checks the users security rights; The PE comes up with a plan for the AMPs to follow; The PE passes the plan along to the AMPs over the BYNET;

The AMPs follow the plan and retrieve the data requested; The AMPs pass the data to the PE over the BYNET; and The PE then passes the final data to the user.