Abstract: Distributed Compute Engine (DCE) memory controller in a data storage environment contains embedded logic and arithmetic functionality for Boolean logical and arithmetic operations. “Write” or “Read” requests which are received from data generating entities, contain a Physical Address field identifying an address of a data block to be retrieved from the external memory, and a Control bits field identifying a type of computational operation to be performed. The DCE memory controller decodes the request, and applies the desired compute operation autonomically to the contents of an external memory and/or the incoming data without burdening the CPU with the computational activity.