This week we released our December update for our back office and point of sale software. In addition to statement emailing that I wrote about last week, we are now exploiting features in the newer Firebird database engine that we use.
As we upgrade each system to this new version we will configure Firebird to use multiple CPU cores. This support in the database engine for multiple cores is a little overdue (it’s been over 5 years since Intel convinced us that ‘dual core’ and ‘quad core’ CPUs are the future – remember the drummers on the TV ad?) but it is still great news for our customers. Better late than never!
Where we will get the most benefit is our database replication system that runs in background. That program can now do its own thing on one CPU core, keeping the database synchronised with other Univex PCs on the network. Then our POS or back office program can use another core for interactive processes such as putting transactions through or reporting.
In addition to multi core database access we have also tweaked caching of data so that more memory is allocated to database access, and we pre-load some data in background to speed up ad-hoc usage.
Confused? Probably…
… so just take my word for it: our program will run faster than before.
And like everything we do here at Univex – we take care of it for our customer. They don’t need to fiddle with the software, operating system, or hardware to get the most out of it. Because we often supply the whole kit (software, computer, network, web site, everything) we maintain it all and make sure everything is working together.
