1. A method comprising: maintaining, within volatile memory, a plurality of column vectors for a relational table of a relational database; wherein the plurality of column vectors includes a particular column vector; wherein the particular column vector contiguously stores values from a particular column of the relation table; wherein the values within the particular column vector are stored in the volatile memory in a particular format; wherein the particular format is one of (a) a compressed format, or (b) a variable-width format; during execution of a database command, transferring, in the particular format, a contiguous portion of the particular column vector from the volatile memory to a CPU; wherein the contiguous portion includes a first set of values that corresponds to a plurality of values of the particular column of the relational table; and based on the first set of values, for each value of the plurality of values, the CPU generating results of performing at least one operation, required by the database command, on said each value; wherein the step of generating results is performed after transferring the contiguous portion to the CPU, and before any further communication, between the volatile memory and the CPU, of data corresponding to the plurality of values.