The open source PostgreSQL database is out with a new release today that introduces new administration and database features for users.

In total, PostgreSQL 8.4 includes 293 enhancements from the previous 8.3 release, an update that was primarily centered around performance.

"There is no performance change [that] affects all users equally across the board," PostgreSQL project core team member Josh Berkus told InternetNews.com. "However, there are several changes with dramatically improve performance for several specific common use cases."

The new PostgreSQL release comes at a critical time in the open source database market, as rival MySQL is about to be absorbed into Oracle as part of its acquisition of Sun.

While it's unclear how MySQL may change from its new association with the proprietary database giant, the powers behind PostgreSQL aren't sitting still.

Among the new changes in its new release are improvements to some complex reporting queries, which could improve performance by as much as 400 percent, according to Berkus. Database restoration is also accelerated in the new release, with a Parallel Restore feature that Berkus said could speed up loading a new database, or migrating an existing one, by as much as eight times -- depending on the number of processors a user has.