Cluster appropriate for in-memory database?

[Nick Loman]

Hello

I have a database which has a high transaction throughput, with a relatively high writer:reader ratio, lets say 1 write to 20 reads. ACID-style reliability is not important for this database in the event of power loss.

As the database is quite small I would like to try an "in memory" configuration to see if performance can be helped.

As I understand it, a database run with MySQL Cluster will be "in memory", however I am unclear whether that means performance will be improved generally due to the other overheads that are imposed.

The MySQL "MEMORY" engine is probably not suitable as I do require recovery from persistent store in the event of a reboot.

Would MySQL Cluster be the appropriate solution for this problem, or are there other MySQL configuration modes that might acheive what I want with less overhead? E.g. could I tune my.cnf to keep a set of tables in memory at all times?

Many thanks

Nick.