New CRAM method offers giant boost to compressed memory reads

Kevin_Flynn

Ram Doubler, for Mac and Win 3.x, 1996 https://winworldpc.com/product/connectix-ram-double/windows-... Nice to see its back, with better performance. History repeated, with refinement.

vfosnar

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-CRAM-Compressed-RAM

eglintondust

So can I finally download more RAM?

madduci

Finally we can run frontier models locally

cwillu

The article appears to misunderstand the point of the project, and mostly just describes what zswap already does (writing compressed pages back into ram), rather than talking about cram's hardware-offloaded compression that allows cacheline-level access rather than page-level. (And they appear to be aware that they don't really understand it: “My explanation of CRAM might not be completely correct”) The phoronix article is better, and I say that as someone who usually detests the quality of phoronix's technical writing.

cyberclimb

the recording of the presentation has got to be on this YT channel but I only scrubbed through 2 videos (8h each) and it's not easy to find https://www.youtube.com/@LinuxPlumbersConference not sure where it falls in the schedule here either https://lpc.events/event/20/timetable/#all

yonatan8070

Is the hardware support this needs common? Can it be used on regular x86-64 desktops/laptops or is it for specialized hardware?