Multiple storage engines in MySQL

The multiple storage engine architecture allows applications to take advantage of the particular strengths of each...

engine, allowing for much finer grain control. Within a single database, you might have some tables using MyISAM for its speed, small memory footprint and fulltext capabilities, while others use InnoDB for its support of transactions and foreign keys. You can even roll your own storage engine, if you want to use MySQL as a front end to your proprietary data format.