Abstract: Methods and systems are disclosed for a cache architecture for accelerating operations of a column-oriented database management system. In one example, a hardware accelerator for data stored in columnar storage format comprises at least one decoder to generate decoded data, a cache controller coupled to the at least one decoder. The cache controller comprising a store unit to store data in columnar format, cache admission policy hardware for admitting data into the store unit including a next address while a current address is being processed, and a prefetch unit for prefetching data from memory when a cache miss occurs.