# Meta Developing Compressed RAM "CRAM" For Linux: Better Than ZRAM & Zswap

DevFeed: [Meta Developing Compressed RAM "CRAM" For Linux: Better Than ZRAM & Zswap](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/meta-developing-compressed-ram-cram-for-linux-better-than-zram-zswap-65667.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-CRAM-Compressed-RAM>)

Author: Michael Larabel

Published: 2026-10-06T10:23:06Z

Content type: news

Language: en

Sources: [Phoronix](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/phoronix.md>)

Topics: [Linux](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/linux.md>), [DRAM price increase](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/dram-price-increase.md>), [64GB RAM](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/64gb-ram.md>)

Tags: [desktop-linux](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/desktop-linux.md>), [dram](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/dram.md>), [hardware](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/hardware.md>), [linux](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/linux.md>), [linux-benchmarking](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/linux-benchmarking.md>), [linux-hardware-benchmarks](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/linux-hardware-benchmarks.md>), [linux-hardware-reviews](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/linux-hardware-reviews.md>), [linux-how-to](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/linux-how-to.md>), [linux-performance](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/linux-performance.md>), [linux-server-benchmarks](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/linux-server-benchmarks.md>), [open-source-graphics](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/open-source-graphics.md>), [performance](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/performance.md>), [phoronix](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/phoronix.md>), [phoronix-test-suite](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/phoronix-test-suite.md>), [ram](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ram.md>), [ubuntu-benchmarks](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ubuntu-benchmarks.md>), [ubuntu-hardware](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ubuntu-hardware.md>)

## AI overview

Meta engineers presented CRAM, a compressed memory approach for Linux. The report says CRAM offers near-native DRAM speeds, with read-only data matching raw DRAM performance and memory writes faster than ZRAM, Zswap, or plain swap. Most supporting pieces are already in mainline, while further upstreaming remains prospective.

## Source excerpt

With today's memory shortages, high prices, and ever increasing memory capacity needs, Meta engineers have been working on Compressed RAM "CRAM" for Linux. This hardware-offloaded compression still allows cacheline/byte access to compressed memory and in turn a better implementation than the likes of ZRAM and Zswap. Very promising is that there is near-native performance to raw DRAM speeds with CRAM...