"NewSQL", MemSQL vs "NoSQL"

Ex-Facebookers Feed Zuck's Code Into New Data Revolution | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com:
"“NewSQL” database. Like the NoSQL databases, he says, it scales across many machines, but unlike those older creations, it lets you query your data with tried-and-true SQL, and it provides the consistency you need for transactional applications — or at least some of them. "

MemSQL offers what’s called an “in-memory database.” Much like a Facebook creation known as Scuba, it spreads information across the memory systems inside dozens of computer servers, bypassing the (much slower) hard disks that traditionally house the world’s information. The end result is a system that lets you retrieve and analyze data at unusually high speeds.

The idea of a database that runs in computer memory is hardly new. TimesTen, an in-memory database offered by software giant Oracle, dates back to the mid-1990s. But as Frenkiel explains, MemSQL represents a new breed of in-memory database — an in-memory database specifically designed to operate across a large number of machines.