Netlist, Inc.
Method and apparatus for uniform memory access in a storage cluster

Abstract:

The present application presents a Uniform Memory Access (UMA) network including a cluster of UMA nodes each having at least one UMA memory unit and a server local to the at least one UMA memory unit. A respective UMA memory unit in a respective UMA node comprises persistent memory; non-persistent memory, a node control device operatively coupled to the persistent memory and the non-persistent memory, a local interface for interfacing with the local server in the respective UMA node, and a network interface for interfacing with the UMA network. The node control device is configured to translate between a local unified memory access (UMA) address space accessible by applications running on the local server and a global UMA address space that is mapped to a physical UMA address space. The physical UMA address space includes physical address spaces associated with different UMA nodes in the cluster of UMA nodes. Thus, a server in the UMA network can access the physical address spaces at other UMA nodes without going through the servers in the other UMA nodes.