Database that can handle >500 millions rows

Question

I am looking for a database that could handle (create an index on a column in a reasonable time and provide results for select queries in less than 3 sec) more than

Answer 1

Pretty much every non-stupid database can handle a billion rows today easily. 500 million is doable even on 32 bit systems (albeit 64 bit really helps).

The main problem is:

• You need to have enough RAM. How much is enough depends on your queries.
• You need to have a good enough disc subsystem. This pretty much means if you want to do large selects, then a single platter for everything is totally out of the question. Many spindles (or a SSD) are needed to handle the IO load.

Both Postgres as well as Mysql can easily handle 500 million rows. On proper hardware.