Patent ID: 8224800

Claim:
A hardware accelerator array for assisting in processing queries from a host system to a database, wherein the hardware accelerator array is configured to execute database machine code instructions for at least a portion of the queries based on a plurality of nodes each comprising at least one dataflow architecture hardware processing element, said hardware accelerator array comprising: an input switch for receiving database machine code instructions for tasks of a query offloaded to the hardware accelerator array and distributing the database machine code instructions to selected nodes of the hardware accelerator array; a plurality of nodes each comprising a set of processing elements comprising dataflow architecture hardware provided in the hardware accelerator array, wherein the processing elements are configured to execute the database machine code instructions on data from the database for the tasks, wherein the database machine code instructions specify a dataflow program of execution by the set of processing elements and specify at least one operation on a data dataflow of the offloaded query task; and an output for providing a result for the tasks based on the execution of the database machine code instructions.