In some embodiments, the set of nodes in a TidalPod that contain memory is extended to include the flash appliance. The flash appliance is treated is another distinct resource type in the system. The flash appliance can be thought of as similar to the other nodes except that, in some embodiments, it does not have any virtual processors on which computations can be scheduled. In some embodiments, the network-attached memory appliance does not start off with any virtual processors, and never accepts any virtual processors from other nodes in the TidalPod.
In one example embodiment, each of nodes 1304 includes a motherboard (1310), where the motherboard may have a number of processors, where each processor may have a number of cores, and each core may have a number of hyperthreads, as described above. In some embodiments, the guest operating system running on the TidalPod views each hyperthread as a processor.