Posting list intersection parallelism in query processing

A computer-readable medium tangibly storing thereon computer-executable process steps, the process steps comprising:

• receiving a query comprising a plurality of query terms;
• partitioning processing of the query into a plurality of posting list intersection tasks, each posting list intersection task to perform a partial intersection of at least two posting lists to identify a set of documents identified in a portion of each of the at least two posting lists processed by the posting list intersection task;
• performing, using a plurality of processing cores executing in parallel, the plurality of posting list intersection tasks;
• and
• identifying a result set of documents from the set of documents identified by each of the posting list intersection tasks as a response to the received query.

A system comprising:

• at least one server, the at least one server comprising a search engine that receives a query comprising a plurality of query terms;
• a partitioner coupled to the search engine, the partitioner partitions processing of the query into a plurality of posting list intersection tasks, each posting list intersection task to perform a partial intersection of at least two posting lists to identify a set of documents identified in a portion of each of the at least two posting lists processed by the posting list intersection task;
• a plurality of processing cores coupled to the partitioner, the plurality of processing cores execute in parallel to perform the plurality of posting list intersection tasks;
• and
• the at least one server comprising a result presenter that identifies a result set of documents from the set of documents identified by each of the posting list intersection tasks as a response to the received query.