High level instructions with lower-level assembly code style primitives within a memory appliance for accessing memory

A method comprising:

• receiving, by a memory appliance over a network interface, a memory related command of a client system said memory related command being an application layer command generated by an application of said client system, wherein said memory appliance comprises a host system with a processor, a memory controller, and a plurality of memory devices;
• translating, by said processor, said application layer command into a plurality of commands more primitive than said memory related command;
• executing, by said memory controller, said plurality of commands on data stored in said plurality of memory devices to produce a result;
• establishing a direct memory access (DMA) transfer between said memory controller and said network interface to transfer said result to said client system which sent said memory related command;
• and
• notifying said host system of said transfer.

A memory appliance comprising:

• a network interface operable to receive a memory related command of a client system, said memory related command being an application layer command generated by an application of said client system;
• a host system comprising a processor operable to interface with said network interface to receive and translate said memory related command into a plurality of primitive commands that are lower layer command than the application layer command and are formatted to be executed by a memory controller;
• a plurality of memory devices comprising data in one or more data structures;
• and
• the memory controller coupled to said plurality of memory devices, wherein said plurality of primitive commands comprise data manipulation operations of data stored in at least one data structure;
• wherein the processor is operable to establish a direct memory access (DMA) transfer between said memory controller and the network interface;
• wherein said memory controller is operable to execute said plurality of primitive commands on said data to produce a result and to transfer said result to said client system;
• and
• wherein said result is transferred over said network interface to said client system.