Heterogeneous Memory Hierarchy for Database Storage Optimization

The patent segments memory capacity into two distinct types: volatile memory for frequently accessed data and non-volatile memory for less frequently accessed data. This segmentation allows the system to achieve high total capacity without requiring all capacity to be expensive volatile memory, thereby reducing overall cost while maintaining adequate performance for active workloads.

The patent applies local quality by assigning different memory types to different data based on access patterns. Frequently accessed data resides in fast volatile memory while less frequently accessed data is stored in slower non-volatile memory. This localized optimization ensures that expensive high-performance memory is only used where necessary, reducing overall system cost while maintaining performance for critical operations.

The patent segments the memory system into volatile and non-volatile components within a single computing device, eliminating the need for distributed clusters. This segmentation provides a unified memory namespace that appears as a single address space to applications, avoiding the interconnect bottlenecks inherent in clustered architectures while still achieving high capacity through the combination of different memory types.

The patent introduces a memory management mechanism that acts as an intermediary between the volatile and non-volatile memory types. This intermediary transparently manages data placement and movement between memory types, providing unified access semantics to applications while optimizing performance by keeping frequently accessed data in volatile memory, thereby maintaining high access speeds without requiring clustered architectures.

The patent applies local quality by using volatile memory specifically for frequently accessed data where speed is critical, while using non-volatile memory for less frequently accessed data where capacity is more important than speed. This localized application of different memory types optimizes the overall system by ensuring that volatile memory's high speed is utilized only where necessary, while non-volatile memory provides cost-effective capacity for other data.

The patent changes the parameters of the memory system by introducing non-volatile memory with different characteristics (higher capacity, lower cost, slower speed) to complement volatile memory. By adjusting the mix and distribution of data across these memory types based on access patterns, the system achieves an optimal balance between capacity, cost, and performance that neither memory type could achieve alone.