1. A method of executing relational database functions in a database engine processor having a control unit, a working memory and a plurality of independently controllable processing elements interconnected by an internal control bus and an internal data bus, each of said plurality of processing elements selectively performing predetermined functions, comprising the steps of: (a) fetching, with a single invocation of said database engine processor, a command block from a system memory in a host computer, said command block comprising a database command and a location in the system memory of a predicate to be used during the processing of the database command; (b) parsing the database command into a sequence of predetermined database processing operations to be performed; (c) selecting, based on selected ones of said predetermined functions performable by said plurality of independently controllable processing elements, ones of the processing elements to perform each of the database processing operations identified in step (b) responsive to said single invocation of said processor; (d) controlling, independently of the host computer, based on the database command, the selected ones of the processing elements to perform the sequence of predetermined database processing operations; (e) temporarily collecting results of the performing of step (d) from said selected ones of said processing elements in the working memory; and (f) assembling the results collected in step (e) into the system memory.
1. A method of executing relational database functions in a database engine processor having a control unit, a working memory and a plurality of independently controllable processing elements interconnected by an internal control bus and an internal data bus, each of said plurality of processing elements selectively performing predetermined functions, comprising the steps of: (a) fetching, with a single invocation of said database engine processor, a command block from a system memory in a host computer, said command block comprising a database command and a location in the system memory of a predicate to be used during the processing of the database command; (b) parsing the database command into a sequence of predetermined database processing operations to be performed; (c) selecting, based on selected ones of said predetermined functions performable by said plurality of independently controllable processing elements, ones of the processing elements to perform each of the database processing operations identified in step (b) responsive to said single invocation of said processor; (d) controlling, independently of the host computer, based on the database command, the selected ones of the processing elements to perform the sequence of predetermined database processing operations; (e) temporarily collecting results of the performing of step (d) from said selected ones of said processing elements in the working memory; and (f) assembling the results collected in step (e) into the system memory. 2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of: (g) reading the predicate from the location in the system memory included in said block fetched from said system memory; (h) causing the control unit to generate predicate evaluation instructions based on said predicate read from said system memory; (i) loading the predicate evaluation instructions into a preselected one of the processing elements; and (j) causing the preselected one of the processing elements to process the predicate in accordance with the predicate evaluation instructions.