CSR: Small: Advancing Operating System Interfaces to Solid-State Storage

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Solid-state storage technologies, such as flash, phase-change memoryand memristors promise large-capacity storage at speeds much fasterthan disk. To date, mainstream use of these technologies has been as areplacement for disks, storing a disk-oriented file system. However,solid-state storage is and will remain far more expensive thandisks. Thus, it will often be used as a cache or special-purposestore, and not as the main repository of data.This proposal develops new interfaces to solid-state storage thatleverage its new features, such as access via ordinary memoryinstructions, and its role in large software systems as a middle layerbetween memory and disk. It focuses on two forms of solid-statestorage: flash memory, common in solid-state drives and mobiledevices, and forthcoming storage-class memory, which compared to flashpromises lower latency, better endurance, and access as memory ratherthan as a device.This research addresses important concerns about using solid-statestorage: how best to use the capabilities of these devices to improvespecific applications or use cases, such as caching; how to provideaccess to internal management capabilities of solid-state storagedevices, such as address translation and garbage collection, toapplications; how to remove software layers between an application andstorage to reduce latency; and how to provide reliable storage whileremoving many of the layers that currently provide reliability.