STYX - Exploiting SmartNIC Capability to Reduce Datacenter Memory Tax

Explore a conference talk from USENIX ATC '23 that introduces STYX, an innovative framework designed to offload intensive memory optimization kernel operations to SmartNIC (SNIC). Learn how this approach significantly reduces datacenter memory tax by leveraging SNIC's RDMA and compute capabilities. Discover the implementation of STYX in two Linux memory optimization features: memory deduplication (ksm) and compressed cache for swap pages (zswap). Understand the impressive results, including a 55-89% decrease in 99th-percentile latency for co-running applications, while maintaining the benefits of these kernel features. Gain insights into the potential of STYX to improve overall efficiency and performance in datacenter servers.

USENIX ATC '23 - STYX: Exploiting SmartNIC Capability to Reduce Datacenter Memory Tax