1. A method comprising: programming a filtering unit with a predicate that specifies criteria for filtering results of a query that targets a table; wherein the predicate specifies a condition for a particular column of the table; generating a predicate result by loading values from the particular column into an input cache and causing the filtering unit to apply the predicate to the values; wherein the predicate result identifies rows of the table that have values, within the particular column, that satisfy the condition specified by the predicate; selecting rows to return, as results of the query, based at least in part on the predicate result; returning the selected rows as results to the query; wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.