Technology on AltSql.com

AltSql Is a Native Hybrid of Key-Value and SQL, From the Sensor to the Gateway

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

AltSql is a native hybrid of key-value and SQL, in the engine and in the database: one small engine and one set of records, from the sensor to the gateway, with nothing to translate in between. Everything else AltSql offers follows from that.

The engine is the software. The database is the data the software keeps. The engine is code: it writes records, finds them again, keeps them safe through a power cut and answers questions about them. The database is the records themselves, stored in order, usually in one file. In AltSql the hybrid lives in both. The engine is one piece of code with two ways in, and the database is one set of records that both ways reach.

AltSql Core and AltSql DB Are Now Open Source Under the Apache License 2.0

Mon, 05 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

For now the project focuses on two products: the engine, AltSql Core, and the database, AltSql DB. Both are open source under the Apache License 2.0. The code is on GitHub. Premium add-ons may come later under different licenses.

AltSql keeps key-value and time-series records on the device and answers SQL on the gateway, with the same records on both, so nothing gets translated in between. The device keeps working and deciding when the link drops, and it sends less. The native hybrid post says why that matters.

Introduction

Fri, 25 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A connected product usually handles its data on two computers. The device is a microcontroller with kilobytes of RAM, flash that wears with every erase, and power that can vanish in the middle of a write. The gateway gathers data from many devices and passes it on. Each side has good tools of its own, and they don’t share a format. So every product team writes converter code between them, and somebody keeps it working for the ten or more years the device stays in service.

How It Works

Fri, 25 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The idea. A native hybrid of key-value and SQL: a very small database on the device that reads the sensors, keeping its data so that the gateway’s database can use it as it is, byte for byte, with no translation step.

The Whole Chain at a Glance

From the sensor to the cloud: where each part sits, and which way the data moves.

The Learned Query Optimizer

Fri, 25 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Status: planned for the Advanced Beta.

The Alpha answers every query the same way, whatever state the device is in. A device in the field is rarely in the same state twice: its battery runs down, its link comes and goes, its flash fills and wears, and its data turns from routine to alarming. The Learned Query Optimizer (LQO) is a planned, optional layer that lets AltSql take its situation into account. Despite its name, it does more than plan queries: most of its work is deciding what a device keeps, samples and sends, and where an answer comes from.