Patent ID: 7581064

Claim:
A method of utilizing cache metadata to optimize memory access in a computer system having non-uniform memory access (NUMA) architecture including a plurality of nodes, each node having a processor, a local cache, and local volatile memory, said method comprising: inspecting cache metadata associated with a set of cache locations of the local cache of one node of the plurality of nodes, wherein said inspecting is performed by software executing on one of the processors; analyzing said cache metadata to determine an amount or frequency of use of remote memory locations stored in the local cache, the remote memory locations being volatile memory that is local to other nodes of the plurality of nodes; and optimizing memory access based on results of said analyzing, the optimizing comprising performing one of: moving or replicating data stored in a first node of the plurality of nodes to a second node of the plurality of nodes or preferentially scheduling an observed process on a node that has been determined by the analyzing to contain data frequently accessed by said observed process.