OFA to Highlight Enormous Potential of Remote Persistent Memory at Upcoming Flash Memory Summit

/ / Consortium News, From the Chairs, OpenFabrics News

Flash Memory Summit (FMS) 2018 is right around the corner, taking place August 7-9 in Santa Clara, CA. The annual event, which has grown to become one of the most prominent gatherings in the storage industry, provides attendees with practical information on the current state of flash memory technology and its wide-variety of applications. One such technology that the OpenFabrics Alliance (OFA) is excited to explore in detail at FMS 2018 is Persistent Memory, more specifically Remote Persistent Memory (RPM).

OFA Chair Paul Grun will be onsite at FMS 2018 to contribute his expertise to Part 4 of the Persistent Memory track that’s dedicated to RPM topics.

Below is a complete overview of the RPM section:

PMEM 202-1: Persistent Memory Part 4 – Remote Persistent Memory
Sponsored by SNIA, JEDEC, and OpenFabrics Alliance Wednesday, August 8, 2018
Description:

Remote Persistent Memory (RPM) has a wide range of potential applications and use cases, including scale-out file and object systems, in-memory databases, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and hyperconverged infrastructure. But, accessing PM over a fabric creates a whole new set of opportunities and challenges; for example, networks will need to evolve to leverage the potential of RPM. But successfully evolving networks and network stacks depends first on developing a crisp understanding of application requirements and the use cases to which RPM will be applied. This section begins with an update on industry-wide efforts to clearly identify the use cases to which RPM might be applied. From there, this section explores the benefits and potential impacts in both the commercial and HPC spaces from the application perspective. The section concludes by exploring some implications on network design necessary to enable applications in fully leveraging RPM.

Session 1
3:20 p.m. – 4:25 p.m. 
Paul Grun, Chair, OpenFabrics Alliance and Senior Technologist, Cray, Inc.

“The Case for Use Cases”

 

Scott Miller, Technology Fellow, DreamWorks

“Remote Persistent Memory from the Commercial Perspective”

Session 2
4:40 p.m.– 5:45 p.m. 
Jim Harrell, Director of Engineering, Cray, Inc.
“HPC and Remote Persistent Memory” Rob Davis, VP, Storage Technologies, Mellanox Technologies
“RPM Impacts on Network Architecture”

 

Grun’s “The Case for Use Cases” session will explain the notion of a ‘tops down’ definition of network APIs and why it’s important. To illustrate that tops down approach, this section will introduce the work underway in the industry to describe use cases for remote persistent memory, and how those use cases will drive fabric requirements.

Hope to see you in Santa Clara!