Open-source database pioneer MySQL will open up the API to its database storage engine

Open-source database pioneer MySQL is to announce it is opening up the API to its database storage engine, and will also reveal plans for future versions.

Solid Information Technology, a developer of databases for the telecoms sector, has already said it plans to develop an engine compatible with MySQL. Several other vendors are also expected to announce support this week, with optimisations for capabilities such as XML, archiving and managing unstructured data.

At the MySQL user conference in California this week, the firm will also show plans for future versions of MySQL Server based on a new database engine called Falcon. The engine's creator is Jim Starkey, who developed Ashton-Tate's Interbase database, later known as Firebird. "This is Jim's database for the next generation," said MySQL's Zack Urlocker. "Transaction processing is still important but now you're dealing with a massive amount of online data, analytics, binary large objects, 64bit CPUs, multiple threads, lots of memory and scale-out applications."

Finally, the firm will preview changes to MySQL Network management tools and MySQL Workbench, a database design tool. "You can go back and forth between the physical database and graphical representation and it's always in sync," Urlocker said.

Separately, Microsoft has posted Service Pack 1 for SQL Server 2005. This includes Database Mirroring and SQL Server Management Studio Express to provide report tools for users of the basic version of the database.