AltSql Gives IoT Devices a 15 KB Database That Keeps Working When the Link Drops
Anyone who has built the software side of a connected product knows the glue job. The device keeps its readings in one format and the gateway wants rows in a SQL database, so somebody writes a converter. Then somebody has to keep that converter alive for as long as the device stays in the field, which can easily be ten years.
AltSql takes the converter out. Its base engine, AltSql Core, compiles to about 15 KB of code for a microcontroller. The device keeps its readings and settings in its own flash and goes on deciding from its own data when the connection goes. Its gateway stores the very same records, byte for byte, and answers SQL over them.
For app developers this moves logic around. A rule like “switch the fan on if the last ten readings were all above 60 °C” runs on the device itself, with no round trip to a server, while the dashboard queries the same history in plain SQL on the gateway. The How It Works page shows both halves: a few lines of C on the device, one SELECT on the gateway.
Six prototypes are built around Core, and the engines page lists them all. AltSql Ask puts one SQL question to a whole fleet and brings back only the answers; AltSql Mesh lets devices share a table with no gateway at all.
The project is at Alpha. So far everything has run on a PC with the flash chips and radio links simulated, and real chips come with the Beta. The live demos run the actual engine in your browser, compiled to WebAssembly, and you can cut a device’s power in the middle of a write to see what survives. Device makers who want to try it on their own board can plan a pilot.