fastest method for reading tables

I have an application program that needs to read data by the fastest method possible.

Is OCI the fastest available interface? What parameters need to be tuned to get the application to go faster?
Is there any other interface that might go faster than OCI?

The application makes queries that retrieve *all* rows of a table (but only a subset of the columns).

The application does not care if the data is slightly out of date.

thanks,

-Waqar Hasan
 hasan_at_db.stanford.edu Received on Tue Nov 18 1997 - 00:00:00 CST