FBMM: Making Memory Management Extensible With Filesystems

Explore an innovative approach to memory management in operating systems through this 18-minute conference talk from USENIX ATC '24. Dive into File Based Memory Management (FBMM), a system that leverages Linux virtual file system (VFS) callbacks to create extensible memory managers. Learn how this method allows for the development of diverse memory policies and mechanisms to support new hardware configurations like CXL technology. Discover the benefits of memory management filesystems (MFSs), including transparency to applications, dynamic loading, and simplified implementation. Examine real-world examples of MFSs for tiered memory, contiguous allocations, and memory bandwidth allocation. Gain insights into FBMM's performance, with overhead measurements and comparisons to kernel implementations. Understand how this approach can streamline the process of adapting operating systems to emerging memory technologies and configurations.