Logical Memory Pools: Flexible and Local Disaggregated Memory

We propose logical memory pools, a memory disaggregation architecture for the emerging Compute Express Link (CXL) technology in datacenters. The key idea is to create a memory pool by carving out parts of the local memory in each server, rather than using a physical memory pool that is separate from servers. Logical pools provide significant benefits over physical pools, namely, lower cost, support for near-memory computing without extra hardware, and flexibility on designating whether memory is part of the memory pool or not. We demonstrate that logical pools can execute workloads that are unfeasible in physical pools, and that its faster access leads to better performance. Realizing logical memory pools poses five major challenges, which we believe can be overcome. Given the benefits of logical pools, we believe the CXL community should refocus efforts on logical, rather than physical memory pools.