EPFL researchers have pioneered an innovative approach to implementing virtual memory in data centers, which will greatly increase server efficiency.
As big data, used by everything from AI to the Internet of Things, increasingly dominates our modern lives, cloud computing has grown massively in importance. It relies heavily on the use of virtual memory with one data server running many services for many different customers all at the same time, using virtual memory to process these services and to keep each customer’s data secure from the others.
However, the way this virtual memory is deployed dates back to the 1960’s, and the fact that memory capacity is always increasing is actually beginning to slow things down. For example, data centers that provide services such as social networks or business analytics spend more than 20% of their processing time in virtual memory and protection checks. That means that any gains made in this area will represent a huge benefit in efficiency.
Source: “Midgard – a paradigm shift in data centre technology”, EPFL News
