Unified hardware and software two-level memory mechanisms and associated methods, systems, and software. Data is stored on near and far memory devices, wherein an access latency for a near memory device is less than an access latency for a far memory device. The near memory devices store data in data units having addresses in a near memory virtual address space, while the far memory devices store data in data units having addresses in a far memory address space, with a portion of the data being stored on both near and far memory devices. In response to memory read access requests, a determination is made to where data corresponding to the request is located on a near memory device, and if so the data is read from the near memory device; otherwise, the data is read from a far memory device. Memory access patterns are observed, and portions of far memory that are frequently accessed are copied to near memory to reduce access latency for subsequent accesses.