ALT Modern GPUs reach record analytical performance only when a query's working set fits within its GPU memory budget, and that budget is under growing pressure: GPUs are partitioned and shared, working sets are outgrowing high-bandwidth memory (HBM), and HBM is a fixed on-device resource whose per-dollar capacity has stagnated across generations. Lightweight compression can relieve this pressure by shrinking both footprint and bandwidth demand, but existing GPU compressed-execution techniques either bind decompression to a specific execution model or materialize decompressed columns in HBM before query execution. We present a compression subsystem for compiled GPU query engines that treats decompression as a first-class physical operator. Compression-specific logic is isolated behind a narrow backend interface, so new GPU-oriented encodings can be added without rewriting downstream operators. We implement the design in Proteus and study where decompressed values should be materialized in

ALT Large language models make it possible to pose semantic questions over diverse, multi-modal data. Recent systems give such workloads the declarative feel of a database through semantic operators: relational operators whose conditions a model judges. Most of them now run on a relational engine, yet almost none keeps what the model says past the query: every judgment is discarded on completion and paid for again the next time a query needs it. We present the tag model and tag operators, the right unit for semantic processing, and OCTOPUS, a prototype built as a middleware over DBMS. Two mechanisms are central. First, the tag: each semantic answer a model produces is written back to the relation as data, which the database engine filters, indexes, and stores as it would any other. Second, the tag operator: the unit into which common semantic operators are translated, which fixes the granularity of reuse. A model judges a tuple once, and later queries reuse that judgment as data: through r

ALT Storage systems in production increasingly rely on distributed databases for metadata management, yet our experience at Baidu shows that treating a general-purpose database as a black box leaves substantial performance and efficiency untapped. File-system metadata exhibits directory-tree locality, differentiated consistency requirements, and clustered deletions that general-purpose databases largely ignore. We thus propose MetaDB, a metadata-aware distributed transactional database that serves as the shared metadata layer for Baidu's large-scale storage systems. MetaDB addresses three key mismatches between general-purpose databases and metadata workloads: Data Model Mismatch, Transaction Model Mismatch, and Storage Implementation Mismatch. To bridge these gaps, MetaDB combines (1) tree-topology-induced sharding and execution, (2) semantic-aware off-critical-path processing, and (3) a lifecycle-aware storage engine with in-memory MVCC and locality-aware compaction. MetaDB achieves 2.2x

ALT The focus of this paper is on query processing and not search (approximate or exact). The goal is to find all or k answers and the expressiveness of a query (as opposed to a search expression which is typically simpler) is considered important. Although SQL query processing has matured over the last several decades, query processing over graph data has not received the same attention. Only recently, systems, such as Neo4J, and others have started using graphs for data representation on a large scale. Their approaches and algorithms remain proprietary. In this paper, we address the problem of answering graph queries and their efficient processing on arbitrary-sized graphs. We propose the partitioning of graphs and the use of the distributed paradigm to achieve efficiency and scalability. Our approach takes a subgraph as query input including wild cards and comparison operations. Our partitioned approach leverages focused exploration and distributed processing to achieve the desired para

ALT Natural language querying for time series databases aims to let users find what they need in long histories of data by asking in plain language. Shape queries ask how a series moves. They are the main challenge of this task. Recent work makes them feasible by using symbolization as a bridge between the query and the long history. However, existing symbolizations were designed for compression, similarity indexing, or classification. What a symbolization should provide for natural language querying has not been systematically studied. We therefore examine the definitions of six classical symbolizations against this task and identify three limitations. (1) Direction is missing from the string, (2) direction is measured at too small a scale, and (3) the letters are arbitrary. Three design principles follow. We follow these principles and make a minimal redesign of SAX called TT-SAX (two-track SAX). The level letters stay. Each segment gains a trend letter. It is measured across neighboring

ALT Query rewriting and semantic evaluation of text-to-SQL systems both depend on deciding whether two SQL queries return the same result on every database satisfying the schema constraints. Decades of equivalence-preserving optimizer rules provide a natural basis for constructive proofs: two queries are equivalent when admitted rewrites transform them to a common logical expression. Building on this observation, organizes query-rewriting knowledge as a standalone proof-producing system. It separates rule validation from proof discovery, explicitly aligns alternative query representations, and returns the resulting rewrite derivation. Across three corpus classes, EquiTrace proves 648/1,106 expected-equivalent text-to-SQL pairs (58.6%), 229/266 curated pairs (86.1%), and 97/240 LLM-generated rewrites whose results agree under benchmark execution (40.4%). On the query rewrite corpus, EquiTrace proves 97 pairs, compared with 35 for QED and 38 for SQLSolver. An analysis of 1,242 recorded proof

ALT Modern vector search systems keep payload vectors in cloud object storage and only a compact routing index on fast local storage, typically using cluster-based ANN indexes. This design inherits a problem existing systems do not address. On object storage, small Range-GETs have latency dominated by fixed per-request overhead and are billed per request. Existing readers either issue one request per probed cluster, or coalesce adjacent ranges with hand-tuned gap or span thresholds that do not transfer across datasets or query workloads. We formulate the grouping of probed-cluster byte intervals into object-store requests as a global per-query optimization problem and present WaRP, a workload-aware request planner that solves it efficiently. Given the sorted byte intervals, a limit on the number of requests per query, and an estimate of how many object-store requests from one query can proceed concurrently under the target serving configuration, WaRP searches for a merge plan that minimize

ALT LLM-generated records increasingly populate production information systems where they are treated as data assets subject to the same quality expectations as records from operational databases. A single such record can simultaneously satisfy and violate a quality rule: a grounded fact adjacent to a hallucination, a useful answer adjacent to a stereotype. Classical data cleaning cannot resolve this because the two judgments are incompatible over the same span; a single LLM judge cannot either, since it shares the training biases that produced the conflict. Existing interventions such as prompt engineering, chain-of-thought, and RLHF reduce surface error rates but provide no audit trail and cannot distinguish genuine remediation from blanket suppression. The question is whether a deterministic check over structured inter-agent records can catch the defects that referential checks alone miss. We present BiasGuard-D: two adversarial roles drawn from distinct model families exchange typed cl

ALT Semantic data analytics systems integrate AI-powered operators into query pipelines, enabling declarative queries over structured and unstructured data. However, existing systems rely on per-tuple model invocations, ad hoc operator designs, and lack principled cost models, resulting in poor scalability and limited optimization. We present NousDB, a high-performance semantic analytics engine built on Apache DataFusion.Through NousDB we propose an extended relational algebra with three semantic operators and formal algebraic properties that enable principled query rewriting and cross-operator optimization. We further propose a token-based cost model using equi-depth token histograms to optimize batch sizing under context-window constraints and provide statistical guarantees for safe batching. Experiments show that NousDB achieves up to × 86 speedups with both local and enterprise LLMs, while leading competitors in token efficiency and accuracy. These gains extend to complex JOB and Stack

ALT Cardinality estimation (CE) is crucial in database query optimization. Although recent advances have improved accuracy, deploying machine-learned CE models in dynamic databases remains challenging due to data updates and workload shifts. Retraining can be costly, but existing practices offer little guidance on when and how to update models, resulting in simple periodic retaining strategies that are suboptimal. We propose SWatcher+, a framework that adapts learned CE to dynamic workloads by monitoring data updates and query feedback. SWatcher+ selectively monitors high-impact subqueries for which wrong estimates lead to poor plan performance, and it proactively applies corrections to estimates during query optimization. This strategy enables immediate adaption to data and workload shifts without waiting for full model retraining, and carefully balances the cost and benefit of monitoring and adaption versus retraining. Our experiments show that SWatcher+ offers a better trade-off between

ALT Large language models can solve complex problems across a variety of subjects, such as mathematics and coding. For such complex analytical tasks, models with a long context perform better. Serving models with long context is currently mostly done on powerful systems with multiple GPUs, which are too expensive for most users. An alternative is local inference, or serving a model on a user's own machine, which removes per-token costs and rate limits, besides keeping sensitive data private and giving users full control over the models they run. The common understanding, however, is that local LLMs need compression (e.g., quantization) to run on a single GPU. In this paper, we set out to study the limitations that prevent serving long-context models for single users, besides the capacity issue. Rather than characterizing a single model on one GPU, we analyze how different models behave across several GPU generations. This lets us uncover not just individual bottlenecks but broader trends i

ALT Distance scans in partition-family approximate nearest-neighbor (ANN) search are typically limited by memory bandwidth. Existing systems therefore improve throughput by reading fewer bytes per candidate, often at the cost of recall. We present KatoANN, a CPU ANN search system that removes this tradeoff by batching distance scans on Intel AMX, a CPU matrix engine. Batching allows multiple queries to reuse each fetched vector code, shifting the scan from memory-bound to compute-bound and enabling near-exact distances at the speed of a lossy scan. KatoANN stores each vector once as a 16-bit SQ16 code split into high- and low-byte planes. Its adaptive rank-then-refine scan first ranks all candidates using only the high byte, then refines a small survivor set using the full-byte code. Both stages use the same representation, avoiding a second copy of the raw vectors. Experiments across diverse high-dimensional workloads show that KatoANN is the fastest partition-family ANN search system in

ALT DrugCLIP places small molecules and protein pockets in one space, turning genome-wide drug discovery into large-K retrieval by vector proximity. A campaign fixes over 20K pockets in advance for one library of over 500M molecules. Each pocket keeps K = 500K candidates, 0.1% of the collection, versus 100 in ANN benchmarks. Missed hits never get tested, so mean recall must reach 99% relative to exact search. Large answers make IVF probe every list holding a result and graph search track K or more candidates, so costs grow with K. On our CPUs and GPUs, neither index family reaches the target without losing most of its edge over scanning. SweepANN partitions compressed vectors across GPUs and scans each resident partition. One matrix multiplication scores each block for a whole query batch, reading it once. Several plans perform the K-dependent selection and merging of each query's K answers, each returning an exact top-K under compressed scoring. The window plan retains each query's best K

ALT Cardinality estimation is essential for query optimization, but most existing learned estimators focus on a single predicate type, such as string LIKE clauses or numerical range filters. In practice, analytical workloads often combine both types, while the accuracy of string estimators tends to decrease with longer patterns. We introduce MultiCard, a comprehensive learned cardinality estimator that unifies LIKE predicates and numerical filters within a single end-to-end architecture. By combining a Transformer for long-range sparse patterns with an LSTM for short, frequent patterns, MultiCard achieves robust pattern modeling. In parallel, a numerical encoder integrates catalog histograms and structural predicate features, enabling the model to dynamically assess histogram estimation accuracy across different operators and data skew conditions. A final Transformer layer captures interactions among heterogeneous predicates before a multilayer perceptron predicts query cardinalities. We a

ALT As generative AI continues to evolve, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems are driving rapid growth in vector database capacity requirements. As datasets outgrow host DRAM, vector databases rely on MMap-based serving over SSDs to extend capacity. However, high-fan-out ANN searches generate concurrent irregular accesses that contend for host memory and storage resources, degrading bulk throughput and inflating tail latency under mixed workloads. In this paper, we address these challenges through memory-semantic capacity and workload-aware compute placement. VS-Flash exposes flash as a large-capacity memory-semantic space and dynamically selects the execution engine according to runtime query and workload characteristics. It offloads throughput-oriented large-batch queries to a Computational Memory-Semantic Flash (CMS-Flash) device, while executing latency-sensitive small-batch queries on the host CPU. Both paths access the same resident segments, avoiding a separate host-DRAM re

ALT Distributed LLM serving relies on a global index to locate reusable key-value cache (KVCache) blocks through prefix matching. Losing the index after a crash or restart forces affected requests to recompute existing KVCache on GPUs. Persisting the index restores access after a failure. Existing persistent indexes face a tension between prefix-matching performance and recovery time. A snapshot-backed in-memory index supports fast prefix matching, but rebuilding the full index delays recovery. An on-SSD index avoids this rebuild, but adds storage accesses to prefix matching. Our core insight is that extending a matched prefix over a short span typically requires distinguishing only a few token sequences, suggesting that sparse in-memory routing state may suffice. Prefix matching also accesses block metadata in sequence order, allowing metadata for consecutive blocks to be retrieved together. We present SARP (Sparse Adaptive Routing and Packing), an on-SSD KVCache index for fast recovery a

ALT Vector tiles are delivered as pyramids of small, independently encoded units, whose spatial granularity is largely determined by the tiling scheme. We investigate how this granularity affects compression in column-oriented MapLibre Tiles (MLT), using feature-oriented Mapbox Vector Tiles (MVT) as a baseline. Five heterogeneous geospatial datasets were encoded as conventional tile pyramids and as two denser variants grouping the area of 2 x 2 or 4 x 4 conventional tiles into one encoding unit at approximately matched logical levels of detail. Compared with conventional tiling, the 4 x 4 variant increased MLT's raw size saving over MVT by 1.0-7.3 percentage points across all five datasets. After per-tile gzip, the saving increased by 1.5-6.4 points in four datasets and decreased by 1.4 points in one. Coarser granularity lengthened MLT streams and reduced structural overhead in every dataset. The largest raw gains occurred where conventional tiles had the shortest streams: as mean values p

ALT Long-running agents rely on memory of their past interactions for task state, such as what has been completed and which conditions still hold. Such state is usually a derived state. No record states it, and it must be computed by rules from multiple records of an evolving history. Existing memory benchmarks score only the final answer, with no reference for the intermediate states behind it. A wrong answer therefore cannot be traced to the state that was missed, and a state that silently became outdated goes undetected. We present MemDerive, a diagnostic benchmark for agent memory over evolving data. It specifies each scenario symbolically, derives exact gold answers with Datalog, records the gold derivation DAG and the supporting events of every query, and renders the history in natural language with fictional entities and distractors. Its 10 scenarios contain 4,692 events and 1,503 queries whose difficulty varies along access, evolution, and composition. On this ground truth, MemDeri

ALT When two tables from different sources are joined, the values that should join often differ in spelling, format, or meaning, and fuzzy-, transformation-, and semantic-joins each handle one type of these differences. Large language models (LLMs) can match values that differ in several ways at once, but every LLM call is billed, and having an LLM compare the rows of two large tables can cost far more than a typical budget allows. This paper studies how to combine these join types with LLMs to join two tables under a dollar budget, maximizing recall while keeping the precision of the result at or above a target, a problem that is NP-hard. Our key idea is to use LLMs selectively to create join programs and verify their outputs through sampling, while adaptively deciding which joins to pursue under budget and precision constraints. This combines the scalability of program-based joins with selective LLM verification, while maintaining a statistical precision guarantee on the accumulated resu

ALT Vector search engines built on cloud object storage have drawn growing attention from both academia and industry. These systems typically adopt a disaggregated storage-compute architecture, persisting the primary vector payload in object stores (e.g., Amazon S3) while retaining compact index metadata on compute nodes. However, conventional vector indexing structures are not natively tailored to the pronounced network latency and per-request access costs of cloud object stores, resulting in network I/O amplification, degraded query throughput, and higher API expenses. To resolve these challenges, we present RemoteANN, a vector search engine explicitly co-designed for cloud object storage across indexing and querying. To mitigate the dominant network I/O bottleneck, RemoteANN couples an Inverted File (IVF) index with RaBitQ quantization, further optimized by inter-cluster and intra-cluster data reordering for improved data locality. Building on this tailored data layout, RemoteANN's quer