What is RDMA?
RDMA stands for “remote direct memory access”, which describes the mechanism whereby one computer is able to directly access another computer’s memory. Such direct access is a “zero-copy” process, meaning that it bypasses conventional buffers and eliminates extraneous copying activity on both computers, significantly reducing processing overhead and communication delay (i.e., “latency”). As network links increase in capacity to ten gigabits per second and higher RDMA becomes attractive because it removes what would otherwise be overwhelming network processing load from a computer’s central processor.
