Memory system for binding data to a memory namespace
A computer system includes physical memory devices of different types that store randomly-accessible data in a main memory of the computer system. In one approach, an operating system allocates memory from a namespace for use by an application. The namespace is a logical reference to physical memory devices in which physical addresses are defined. The namespace is bound to a memory type. In response to binding the namespace to the memory type, the operating system adjusts a page table to map a logical memory address in the namespace to a memory device of the memory type.
1. A system comprising:
a first memory device of a first memory type;
a second memory device of a second memory type;
at least one processing device; and
memory containing instructions configured to instruct the at least one processing device to:
manage namespaces for memory devices of different memory types, the namespaces including a first namespace for the first memory device, and a second namespace for the second memory device;
determine a characteristic associated with an application;
update, based on the characteristic, a page table entry in a page table, wherein updating the page table entry includes storing a mapping between a virtual address of the first namespace and a physical address of the first memory device; and
in response to updating the page table entry, store data associated with the application in the first memory device.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the virtual address of the first namespace corresponds to a virtual page of a process managed by an operating system using the page table.
3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the operating system determines the first memory type based on a characteristic associated with the application.
4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first memory type is volatile memory, and the second memory type is non-volatile memory.
5. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the instructions are further configured to instruct the at least one processing device to monitor a context of the application during execution; and
updating the page table entry is based on monitoring the context.
6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions are further configured to instruct the at least one processing device to:
receive, from the application, a request for an allocation of random access memory;
in response to receiving the request, create a first namespace identifier;
make an association of the first memory type with the first namespace identifier; and
update a namespace table to store the association.
7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first memory type is identified by the application.
8. The system of claim 1 , wherein a portion of the page table is stored in a translation lookaside buffer accessible by a memory management unit.
9. The system of claim 1 , wherein a change in a memory type for a record in a namespace table causes an update of the page table entry in the page table.
10. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the instructions are further configured to instruct the at least one processing device to allocate memory for use by the application;
the allocated memory corresponds to the virtual address; and
a record of a namespace table is updated to associate the virtual address with the physical address of the first memory device.
11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the page table entry is updated in response to updating the record of the namespace table.
12. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
managing the namespaces includes binding the first namespace to the first memory type; and
the page table entry is updated in response to binding the first namespace to the first memory type.
13. The system of claim 1 , wherein the characteristic is a type of data processing being performed for the application.
14. The system of claim 1 , wherein the characteristic is a memory performance for data processing of the application.