Firebird 5.0 introduces many improvements without any changes in architecture or operation, the most important are:
Parallel (multi-threaded) operation for backup/restore, sweep and index creation;
Partial indices;
SKIP LOCKED
clause for SELECT WITH LOCK
, UPDATE
and DELETE
statements;
Inline minor ODS upgrade;
Compiled statement cache;
PSQL and SQL profiler;
Support for WHEN NOT MATCHED BY SOURCE
for MERGE
statement;
Support multiple rows for DML RETURNING
;
New built-in functions and packages;
Denser record-level compression;
Network support for scrollable cursors;
The following list summarises the features and changes, with links to the chapters and topics where more detailed information can be found.