Memory system and method having volatile and non-volatile memory devices at same hierarchical level

A non-volatile memory module, comprising:

• at least one non-volatile memory device;
• and
• a non-volatile memory buffer coupled to the at least one non-volatile memory device, the non-volatile memory buffer comprising:
• a downstream link interface coupled to receive DRAM memory requests;
• an upstream link interface coupled to transmit read data;
• a non-volatile memory device interface coupled to the at least one non-volatile memory device;
• a DRAM-to-non-volatile memory converter operable to convert the DRAM memory requests to non-volatile memory requests and to apply the non-volatile memory requests to the non-volatile memory device interface;
• and
• a memory transfer state machine coupled to at least one of the DRAM-to-non-volatile memory converter and the non-volatile memory device interface, the memory transfer state machine being operable to control the timing at which signals corresponding to the non-volatile memory requests are applied to the at least one non-volatile memory device from the non-volatile memory device interface.

A non-volatile memory buffer, comprising:

• a downstream link interface coupled to receive DRAM memory requests;
• an upstream link interface coupled to transmit read data;
• a non-volatile memory device interface adapted to be coupled to a non-volatile memory device;
• a DRAM-to-non-volatile memory converter operable to convert the DRAM memory requests to non-volatile memory requests and to apply the non-volatile memory requests to the non-volatile memory device interface;
• and
• a memory transfer state machine coupled to at least one of the DRAM-to-non-volatile memory converter and the non-volatile memory device interface, the memory transfer state machine being operable to control the timing at which signals corresponding to the non-volatile memory requests are output from the non-volatile memory device interface.