Building a Bw-Tree Takes More Than Just Buzz Words

In 2013, Microsoft Research proposed the Bw-Tree (humorously termed the "Buzz Word Tree''), a lock-free index that provides high throughput for transactional database workloads in SQL Server's Hekaton engine. The Buzz Word Tree avoids locks by appending delta record to tree nodes and using an indirection layer that allows it to atomically update physical pointers using compare-and-swap (CaS). Correctly implementing this techniques requires careful attention to detail. Unfortunately, the Bw-Tree papers from Microsoft are missing important details and the source code has not been released.