External memory as an extension to local primary memory

A client device comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a local primary memory in communication with the processor, the local primary memory comprising:
• an application logic unit;
• and
• a client logic unit configured to:
• receive a memory allocation request from the application logic unit to allocate a portion of memory and/or receive a request to access a portion of an address space addressable by the processor;
• select a type of memory to allocate at the client device from a group of memory types in response to the memory allocation request and/or in response to the request to access the portion of the address space, wherein the selection of the type of memory to allocate is based on an available memory determination, wherein the group of memory types includes the local primary memory, wherein the group of memory types further includes an external primary memory and/or a memory-mapped file, wherein the external primary memory is memory that is located in a memory appliance external to the client device but is treated as primary memory at the client device;
• select a portion of the local primary memory, a portion of the external primary memory, and/or a portion of the memory-mapped file for the portion of memory to allocate at the client device depending on the selected type of memory;
• and
• map at least the selected portion to the address space.

A computer readable storage medium comprising computer executable instructions executable by a processor of a client device, the computer executable instructions comprising:

• instructions executable to allocate a portion of memory by:
• selecting a type of memory to allocate in the client device from a group of memory types in response to a memory allocation request, wherein the selection of the type of memory to allocate is based on an available memory determination, wherein the group of memory types includes a local primary memory and an external primary memory, wherein the external primary memory is memory that is located in a memory appliance external to the client device but is treated as primary memory at the client device, wherein data in the external primary memory is accessible via client-side memory access in which a communication interface of the memory appliance is configured to access the data in memory of the memory appliance;
• selecting a portion of the local primary memory and/or a portion of the external primary memory for the portion of memory to allocate at the client device depending on the selected type of memory;
• and
• mapping at least the selected portion to an address space addressable by the processor.