Paper Title: Important New NVMe Features for Optimizing the Data Pipeline

Paper Abstract: High-performance NVMe SSDs can strain CPUs and memory subsystems when data must be moved between devices. NVMe controller memory buffers (CMBs) allow such transfers to use controller memory rather than tie up system memory. Results show that CMBs can improve performance significantly, and can readily be enabled in system software such as SPDK and the Linux kernel. CMB-enabled NVMe can thus add a new performance dimension with the right hardware and appropriate software support. In the future, the Persistent Memory Regions (PMRs) will provide similar services in cases where non-volatility is required.

Paper Author: Stephen Bates, CTO, Eideticom

Author Bio: Stephen Bates is the CTO of Eideticom and is a renowned expert on topics like NVMe, RDMA, TCP/IP and NVM. He has worked on a range of complex storage and communication systems include the NVMe controllers and PCIe switches developed by his former employer Microsemi (formerly PMC-Sierra). He enjoys working at the interface between hardware and software and is an active contributor to the Linux kernel. Before Eideticom he worked in the CTO at PMC-Sierra and before that was an Assistant Professor in Computer Engineering at The University of Alberta. He holds a PhD from The University of Edinburgh, Scotland.