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What is TurboLynx?

TurboLynx is a fast, scalable OLAP graph database written in C++17.

Key Characteristics

Property Value
Query language Cypher — the dialect defined by the openCypher specification, with a subset of clauses currently implemented (see Cypher Query Language)
Architecture Single-process embedded library
Storage model Extent-based columnar (Graphlet partitioning)
Optimizer ORCA cost-based (Cascades framework, ported from Greenplum)
Graph model Property graph (vertices + directed edges + properties)

Architecture at a Glance

Cypher Query
     │
     â–¼
  ANTLR4 Parser  →  RegularQuery AST
     │
     â–¼
  TurboLynx Binder  →  BoundRegularQuery  (type resolution, schema lookup)
     │
     â–¼
  Cypher2OrcaConverter  →  ORCA Logical Plan
     │
     â–¼
  ORCA Optimizer  →  Physical Plan  (cost-based join ordering, Graphlet Early Merge)
     │
     â–¼
  Pipeline Executor
     │
     â–¼
  Storage  (BufferPool → store.db via the TurboLynx storage backend)

Graphlets — Schema-Clustered Columnar Storage

TurboLynx organizes graph data into cost-based clusters, called Graphlets, and stores them in a columnar format. Cost-based Graphlet Chunking (CGC) chooses the clustering granularity by balancing graphlet count, null entries, and vectorization overhead on heterogeneous schemaless inputs.

GEM — Per-Graphlet Join Ordering

Graphlet Early Merge (GEM) is the TurboLynx optimizer extension that manages the plan search space when a label scan expands to a UNION ALL over many graphlets. It forms coarse-granular virtual graphlets before join enumeration, explores alternatives via PushJoinBelowUnionAll, and uses heuristics plus Greedy Operator Ordering to keep optimization tractable.

Single-Process Embedded

Unlike traditional graph databases that run as a separate server process, TurboLynx embeds directly into the calling process.

  • No daemon to start or stop
  • No IPC or shared memory
  • Catalog persisted as catalog.bin; graph data as store.db
  • C API via libturbolynx.so on Linux or libturbolynx.dylib on macOS

No External Runtime Dependencies

All dependencies are compiled into the binary from bundled source. Only the standard C/C++ runtime libraries provided by the host toolchain are required at runtime.

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