Finally here: MariaDB Vector Preview!

We’re here, we’re open source, and we have RDBMS based Vector Search for you! With the release of MariaDB 11.6 Vector Preview, the MariaDB Server ecosystem can finally check out how the long-awaited Vector Search functionality of MariaDB Server works. The effort is a result of collaborative work by employees of MariaDB plc, MariaDB Foundation and contributors, particularly from Amazon AWS.

Previously on “MariaDB Vector”

If you’re new to Vector, this is what’s happened so far:

We blogged a number of times about our view of where Gen AI belongs in MariaDB Server
We showed a first demo in February at our FOSDEM Fringe Event
We launched a project page on mariadb.org/projects/mariadb-vector/, containing a number of videos
We went on stage at Intel Vision in London, with AI everywhere
We blogged about Amazon’s take on Vectors and MariaDB, in “MariaDB is soon a vector database, too“

The main point: MariaDB Vector is ready for experimentation

The main points are these

AI and LLMs are key, and using them belongs in a “real”, classic, familiar relational database – where the rest of your data is
Our vector search implementation is based on the industry standard HNSW algorithm
You can start experimenting with AI apps, vectors generated by your favourite AI model (OpenAI GPT-4, Claude, LLama2, etc.) all can be stored and searched for in MariaDB.
We have syntax for easily storing vectors (dedicated functions VEC_ToText and VEC_FromText)
We will soon blog about benchmarks, but early indications point towards fast retrieval
All of MariaDB Vector is on the way of becoming part of standard MariaDB Server
You can start experimenting with AI apps
You can download it in source form at https://mariadb.org/download/?p=mariadb&r=11.6.0+Vector
We have prepared a special container image, with CPU optimisations enabled at quay.io/mariadb-foundation/mariadb-devel:11.6-vector-preview
We are happy to take contributions, and ready to do so

The fine print: It’s still Alpha

The fine print is this

We are talking a Preview, so we don’t provide full binary packages
We are talking Alpha release software, which means it may crash
We are still extending the syntax
We plan a feature complete MariaDB 11.6 Vector Edition release within a few months
INSERT speed still needs optimisation
The Vector documentation in the Knowledge Base is still work in progress

Releasing new functionality is always a balance between giving early access to get early feedback, and maturing the software to be stable enough so that testing is meaningful. Given the plentiful requests for testing after the first glimpses we gave at FOSDEM in February, we could no longer wait to get out in the open.

How do we compare our Vector support to that of MySQL Server?

What makes us different from the Vector support in MySQL Server – called Heatwave – is that we have vector search as Open Source. In fact, unlike MySQL, we still lack a separate Vector data type, but we will add it before the full release.

How do we compare our Vector support to that of Postgresql?

What makes us different from the Vector support in PostgreSQL – PG Vector – is that we are looking at helping not just the MariaDB Server users but also the MySQL Server users to get easy Open Source access to Vector functionality. We’ve always made the point that migrating from MySQL Server to MariaDB Server is dead easy, and getting access to Vector functionality is a great reason to get going.

We’re also different from PG Vector in that MariaDB Vector isn’t a plug-in, but a part of core MariaDB Server. We plan MariaDB 11.7 to be the first “normal” release to contain the Vector functionality.

What makes us similar to PG Vector is our interest and capability of working with contributors. We are happy to note that already the first version of MariaDB Vector has significant contributions, where I want to particularly highlight code by Hugo Wen of Amazon AWS. Working with AWS has helped us tune our contribution and review processes.