Zack's Kernel News
Zack's Kernel News
Chronicler Zack Brown reports on the latest news, views, dilemmas, and developments within the Linux kernel community.
Making Device-Based RAM Available To Arbitrary User Processes
Anshuman Khandual wanted to come up with a way for all attached devices to make their on-board RAM available to a running Linux system as just a normal region of RAM that any process could use without having to do anything special.
This is a tough nut to crack, because it's not just a simple matter of mapping the memory and making it available for allocation by user processes. As Anshuman put it, "To achieve seamless integration between system RAM and coherent device memory it must be able to utilize core memory kernel features like anon mapping, file mapping, page cache, driver managed pages, HW poisoning, migrations, reclaim, compaction, etc."
Each of the above requirements had its own set of difficulties, which Anshuman enumerated. For one thing, unlike regular RAM, device RAM couldn't be made available until after a given device had been initialized. That constraint would need to be handled properly. Likewise, each issue had its own constraints and caveats that would need to be papered over so that regular user code would perceive the RAM as simply being available for use.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Red Hat Releases RHEL 10 Early
Red Hat quietly rolled out the official release of RHEL 10.0 a bit early.
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.
-
IBM Announces Powerhouse Linux Server
IBM has unleashed a seriously powerful Linux server with the LinuxONE Emperor 5.
-
Plasma Ends LTS Releases
The KDE Plasma development team is doing away with the LTS releases for a good reason.
-
Arch Linux Available for Windows Subsystem for Linux
If you've ever wanted to use a rolling release distribution with WSL, now's your chance.
-
System76 Releases COSMIC Alpha 7
With scores of bug fixes and a really cool workspaces feature, COSMIC is looking to soon migrate from alpha to beta.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 6.0 Available for Installation
The latest release of OpenMandriva has arrived with a new kernel, an updated Plasma desktop, and a server edition.
-
TrueNAS 25.04 Arrives with Thousands of Changes
One of the most popular Linux-based NAS solutions has rolled out the latest edition, based on Ubuntu 25.04.
-
Fedora 42 Available with Two New Spins
The latest release from the Fedora Project includes the usual updates, a new kernel, an official KDE Plasma spin, and a new System76 spin.