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Title: Memory Disaggregation: Advances and Open Challenges
Compute and memory are tightly coupled within each server in traditional datacenters. Large-scale datacenter operators have identified this coupling as a root cause behind fleetwide resource underutilization and increasing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). With the advent of ultra-fast networks and cache-coherent interfaces, memory disaggregation has emerged as a potential solution, whereby applications can leverage available memory even outside server boundaries. This paper summarizes the growing research landscape of memory disaggregation from a software perspective and introduces the challenges toward making it practical under current and future hardware trends. We also reflect on our seven-year journey in the SymbioticLab to build a comprehensive disaggregated memory system over ultra-fast networks. We conclude with some open challenges toward building next-generation memory disaggregation systems leveraging emerging cache-coherent interconnects.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1845853
PAR ID:
10516025
Author(s) / Creator(s):
;
Publisher / Repository:
ACM
Date Published:
Journal Name:
ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review
Volume:
57
Issue:
1
ISSN:
0163-5980
Page Range / eLocation ID:
29 to 37
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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