Presentation
CXL Memory as Persistent Memory for Disaggregated HPC: A Practical Approach
DescriptionIn the landscape of High-Performance Computing (HPC), the quest for efficient and scalable memory solutions remains paramount. The advent of Compute Express Link (CXL) introduces a promising avenue with its potential to function as a Persistent Memory (PMem) solution in the context of disaggregated HPC systems. We present a comprehensive exploration of CXL memory’s viability as a candidate for PMem, supported by physical experiments conducted on cutting-edge multi-NUMA nodes equipped with CXL-attached memory prototypes. Our study not only benchmarks the performance of CXL memory but also illustrates the seamless transition from traditional PMem programming models to CXL, reinforcing its practicality.
To substantiate our claims, we establish a tangible CXL prototype using an FPGA card embodying CXL 1.1/2.0 compliant endpoint designs. Performance evaluations, executed through the STREAM and STREAM-PMem benchmarks, showcase CXL memory’s ability to mirror PMem characteristics in App-Direct and Memory Mode while achieving impressive bandwidth metrics.
To substantiate our claims, we establish a tangible CXL prototype using an FPGA card embodying CXL 1.1/2.0 compliant endpoint designs. Performance evaluations, executed through the STREAM and STREAM-PMem benchmarks, showcase CXL memory’s ability to mirror PMem characteristics in App-Direct and Memory Mode while achieving impressive bandwidth metrics.