grep-like utility for extremely fast searches via database

[Edward Peschko]

hey all,

I'm hoping that the following exists (so I don't have to make it).

I'm looking for a utility that could be used to study (for quick
matching) a large set of files and put them in a searchable format
(think locate or fulltext search in mysql).

Then I would like to be able to query that matching database, and
display formatted output similar or equivalent to grep output.
With a good matching algorithm, I'd hope to get speedups orders of
magnitude faster than vanilla grep, assuming that the right
algorithm was chosen.

Anyways, does this exist? Best case is if it was already in ordinary
grep, but I don't see it on a cursory examination of the
grep source code..

Thanks much,

Ed