Data partitioning?

hi,

I am becoming more and more convinced that in order to achieve the
required performance and scalability I need to split my data amoungst
many backend machines.

Ideally I would start with about 10 machine and have 1/10th of the data
on each. As the data set grows I would then buy additional machines to
spread the data over.

I think this is called data partitioning in oracle?
What does postgresql have to offer in this area?

Does software already exist to query multiple identical schemas each
with different data stored in them, and then correlate the results?

If not what suggestions does anyone have for writing my own?

Thanks,
Mat

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