A system includes a printed circuit board (PCB) on which is disposed memory components and a processor disposed on the PCB and coupled between the memory components and a host memory controller. The processor comprises a memory channel network (MCN) memory controller to handle memory requests associated with the memory components; a local buffer; and a core coupled to the MCN memory controller and the local buffer. The core executes an operating system (OS) running a network software layer and a distributed computing framework; and an MCN driver to: receive a network packet from the network software layer; store the network packet in the local buffer; and assert a transmit polling field of the local buffer to signal to the host memory controller that the network packet is available for transmission to a host computing device.