← Back to Overview

Ringlock Engine Architecture

Engineered in clean-room Rust with strict module boundaries, zero shared mutable state, and kernel-bypass I/O.

1. Symmetrical Shared-Disk Topology

Unlike shared-nothing architectures (which require expensive distributed two-phase commits across network partitions) or primary-replica systems (which bottleneck all writes on a single node), Ringlock implements a true shared-disk active-active topology.

All compute instances read and write directly to a unified shared block device via io_uring / NVMe-oF and kernel-bypass RDMA interconnects.

2. Cache Fusion & Distributed Lock Manager (GES/GCS)

When an active node needs to modify an 8KB data page currently held in another node's buffer pool, the Global Cache Service (GCS) transfers the dirty block memory-to-memory across the high-speed interconnect in under 15 microseconds.

Readers never block writers: readers query Consistent Read (CR) clones generated on-the-fly using Undo segments, while the Global Enqueue Service (GES) maintains lock mastery and dead-node fencing without split-brain risk.

3. In-Place Update Slotted Ustore

Ringlock eschews append-only out-of-place updates. Row updates occur in-place within 8KB slotted pages, generating compact rollback vectors inside dedicated undo tablespaces.

This guarantees predictable, deterministic latency and eliminates vacuum storms and read amplification.

4. Vectorized Execution & Procedural Language VM

The SQL query engine wraps Apache DataFusion and Apache Arrow for SIMD-vectorized filter, join, and aggregation pipelines on analytical workloads.

For stored procedures, Ringlock executes an optimized stack-based bytecode virtual machine supporting enterprise packages, cursors, triggers, parameterized types, and bulk collection bindings.

5. Enterprise Drop-In Client Compatibility

Existing enterprise applications cannot be easily rewritten. Ringlock provides drop-in C and Java driver interfaces implementing standard enterprise database contracts:

  • Java JDBC: Clean-room driver supporting standard connection unwrapping, ref cursors, and structured array/record casting.
  • Native C-ABI: Compatible client shared library exporting standard C entry points for compiled C/C++, Pro*C, and Go binaries without recompilation.
  • Catalog Views: Full dictionary emulation (DBA_*, ALL_*, USER_*, V$*, GV$*) and standard system management packages.