The new release includes performance improvements and advanced SQL features which will support larger data warehouses, higher-volume transaction processing and more complex distributed enterprise software.
New features in this release include:
Roles:
PostgreSQL now supports database roles, which simplify the management of large numbers of users with complex overlapping database rights.
IN/OUT Parameters:
PostgreSQL functions now support IN, OUT and INOUT parameters, which substantially improves support of complex business logic for J2EE and .NET applications.
Two-Phase Commit (2PC):
Long in demand for WAN applications and heterogeneous data centers using PostgreSQL, this feature allows ACID-compliant transactions across widely separated servers.
Some Performance Enhancements found in this release include:
Improved Multiprocessor (SMP) Performance:
The buffer manager for 8.1 has been enhanced to scale almost linearly with the number of processors, leading to significant performance gains on 8-way, 16-way, dual-core, and multi-core CPU servers.
Bitmap Scan:
Indexes will be dynamically converted to bitmaps in memory when appropriate, giving up to twenty times faster index performance on complex queries against very large tables.
Table Partitioning:
The query planner is now able to avoid scanning whole sections of a large table using a technique known as Constraint Exclusion.
Shared Row Locking:
PostgreSQL’s “better than row-level locking” now supports even higher levels of concurrency through the addition of shared row locks for foreign keys.
PostgreSQL 8.1.0 can be downloaded from the following locations:
FTP Mirrors
– http://www.postgresql.org/ftp/latest/
-Windows Installer
– http://www.postgresql.org/ftp/binary/v8.1.0/win32
Other Binaries, including Linux, Mac OSx and Solaris
– http://www.postgresql.org/ftp/binary/v8.1.0/
Installation guideline for PostgreSQL Mac OS X version :
http://developer.apple.com/internet/opensource/postgres.html
