[Beowulf] zram usage

Prentice Bisbal prentice.bisbal at rutgers.edu
Thu May 1 14:35:50 PDT 2014


On 05/01/2014 05:07 PM, Ellis H. Wilson III wrote:
> On 05/01/2014 03:57 PM, Prentice Bisbal wrote:
>> On 05/01/2014 03:43 PM, Joe Landman wrote:
>>> On 05/01/2014 03:33 PM, atchley tds.net wrote:
>>>> Yes, but I don't want to buy a Dell just to get a NVMe unit. ;-)
>>>
>>> Not that I am trying to get the dude a Dell ... but think of it as
>>> very expensive shrink wrap packaging ... :^
>> On the bright side, a Dell box will be easier to open than a plastic
>> clam-shell package.
>
> Dell is the only one shipping the Samsung XS1715 to the best of my 
> knowledge.  Please correct me if there is some other place which is. 
> Samsung's the only one on the market with anything providing NVMe 
> right now.  Should change within the year though.
>
> But, as a word of caution, let's all beat this into our heads now: 
> Flash is not RAM.  Flash is not RAM.  Flash is not RAM.  Not even slow 
> RAM. (Ok, NAND Flash is not slow RAM -- maybe you could get away with 
> saying NOR flash is slow RAM).  If it ain't byte-addressable, it ain't 
> RAM.
>

Despite being the one who stated us down the NVMe path, I get this 
warning. How does UltraDIMM work, then? Have they found a way to 
byte-address flash RAM, or are they using some sort of translation layer 
as a kludge? As I understand it, you could put it in a regular DIMM 
slot, but I could be wrong about that.

--
Prentice




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