The more rapid rate of increase in the speed of microprocessor technology than in memory speeds has created a serious 'memory gap' for computer designers and manufacturers. High Performance Memory Systems addresses this issue and examines all aspects of improving the memory system performance of general-purpose programs. Current research highlights from both industry and academia focus on: coherence, synchronization, and allocation; power-awareness, reliability, and reconfigurability; software-based memory tuning; architecture design issues; and workload considerations. Topics and features: Both hardware and software approaches to scalability and speed disparities are considered Introductory chapter provides broad examination of high performance memory systems Includes coverage of topics from several important international conferences. Edited by leading international authorities in the field, this new work provides a survey from researchers and practitioners on advances in technology, architecture, and algorithms that address scalability needs in multiprocessors and the expanding gap between CPU/network and memory speeds. It is ideally suited to researchers and R & D professionals with interests or practice in computer engineering, computer architecture, and processor architecture.