Expansion slots for flash memory based random access memory subsystem

1. A memory system, comprising:

a controller that regulates read and write access to one or more FLASH memory devices employed for random access memory (RAM) applications, the controller communicates with the one or more FLASH memory devices over a first channel configured as a FLASH memory channel, wherein the controller is an application specific integrated circuit configured to occupy and communicate with an expansion memory slot of a computer, and wherein at least one FLASH memory device of the one or more FLASH memory devices is utilized as a main memory for the memory system;

an address and data bus comprising the first channel configured as the FLASH memory channel and a second channel configured as a RAM channel;

a buffer component comprising a RAM that communicates with the controller over a second channel configured as the RAM channel, and operates in conjunction with the controller to regulate read and write access to the one or more FLASH memory devices, wherein the buffer component is not visible to the main memory or an operating system architecture associated with the memory system;

at least one of: a first expansion slot adapted with dual inline memory modules for additional RAM buffer capacity or a second expansion slot adapted with dual inline memory modules for additional FLASH memory capacity;

a wear leveling component that employs the buffer component to remap a heavily used FLASH memory sector to a lightly used FLASH memory sector utilizing a FLASH sector table that delineates sectors of the one or more FLASH memory devices with a format comprising at least one of a FLASH sector number, a data valid bit, or a wear bit; and

a victim page handling component that evicts one or more memory sectors from the buffer component to the one or more FLASH memory devices in response to occurrence of a conflict associated with the buffer component.

2. The system of claim 1 , the buffer component is a dynamic RAM component.

3. The system of claim 1 , the buffer component is provided as part of a dual inline memory module package.

4. The system of claim 1 , the one or more FLASH memory devices are provided as part of a dual inline memory module package.

5. The system of claim 1 , data from the one or more FLASH memory devices is moved to the buffer component during background operations of the computer.

6. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a back throttling component to slow write access to the one or more FLASH memory devices.

7. The system of claim 1 , further comprising an operating system component that provides a free list of available sectors in the one or more FLASH memory devices or the buffer component.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the second channel is configured as a dynamic RAM channel.

9. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a memory management unit associated with a processor adapted to operate a free list.

10. The system of claim 9 , the free list is associated with the buffer component or a FLASH memory device of the one or more FLASH memory devices.

11. The system of claim 9 , the memory management unit is adapted to operate with the FLASH memory device in accordance with slower write cycle times.

12. A method to interface to a memory subsystem, comprising:

adapting a controller to a memory expansion slot of a computer system, the controller slows write access to a FLASH device, wherein the controller is configured as an application specific integrated circuit and the FLASH device is configured as a main memory for the memory subsystem;

adapting an address and data bus to include a first channel configured as a FLASH channel and a second channel configured as a random access buffer memory channel;

configuring the FLASH device to communicate with the controller via the first channel;

employing a random access buffer memory to facilitate writing to the FLASH device, wherein the random access buffer memory is not visible to the main memory or an operating system architecture associated with the memory subsystem;

configuring the random access buffer memory to communicate with the controller via the second channel;

at least one of adapting a first expansion slot with dual inline memory modules for additional random access buffer memory capacity or adapting a second expansion slot with dual inline memory modules for additional FLASH capacity;

utilizing the random access buffer memory to facilitate remapping a heavily used FLASH memory sector to a lightly used FLASH memory sector utilizing a FLASH sector table that delineates sectors of the FLASH device with a format comprising at least one of a FLASH sector number, a data valid bit, or a wear bit; and

evicting one or more memory sectors from the random access buffer memory to the FLASH device in response to occurrence of a conflict associated with the random access buffer memory.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising moving data to the FLASH device during background memory operations.

14. The method of claim 12 , further comprising operating a free list utilizing the FLASH device or the random access buffer memory.

15. A removable electronic memory device; comprising:

a controller provided as an application specific integrated circuit configured to occupy and communicate with an expansion memory slot of a computer;

an address and data bus comprising a first channel configured as a FLASH memory channel and a second channel configured as a random access memory (RAM) channel;

a FLASH memory that communicates with the controller over the first channel and provided as a main memory for the memory device, wherein the FLASH memory includes one or more FLASH memory devices;

a RAM module that communicates with the controller over the second channel and is provided as a buffer component for the FLASH memory, wherein the RAM module is not visible to a host device connected to the removable electronic memory device;

at least one of: a first expansion slot adapted with dual inline memory modules for additional RAM buffer capacity or a second expansion slot adapted with dual inline memory modules for additional FLASH memory capacity;

a wear leveling component that employs the buffer component to remap a heavily used FLASH memory sector to a lightly used FLASH memory sector utilizing a FLASH sector table that delineates sectors of the one or more FLASH memory devices with a format comprising at least one of a FLASH sector number, a data valid bit, or a wear bit; and

a victim page handling component that evicts one or more memory sectors from the buffer component to the one or more FLASH memory devices in response to occurrence of a conflict associated with the buffer component.