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- March 2009: during the systems dinner for prospective PhD students, John strikes up a conversation about RAMCloud with Ryan Stutsman (then a second-year student); Steve Rumble (first-year student) listens intently from across the room, then moves over to join the discussion. Diego Ongaro (a prospective PhD student) is in the room but doesn't participate in the conversation.
- Spring 2009: a discussion group meets weekly to explore design issues for RAMCloud. The results are published as the white paper The Case for RAMCloud, with all of the discussion group members as authors.
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