Operating system implications of fast, cheap, non-volatile memory

  • Authors:
  • Katelin Bailey;Luis Ceze;Steven D. Gribble;Henry M. Levy

  • Affiliations:
  • University of Washington, Department of Computer Science & Engineering;University of Washington, Department of Computer Science & Engineering;University of Washington, Department of Computer Science & Engineering;University of Washington, Department of Computer Science & Engineering

  • Venue:
  • HotOS'13 Proceedings of the 13th USENIX conference on Hot topics in operating systems
  • Year:
  • 2011

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Abstract

The existence of two basic levels of storage (fast/volatile and slow/non-volatile) has been a long-standing premise of most computer systems, influencing the design of OS components, including file systems, virtual memory, scheduling, execution models, and even their APIs. Emerging resistive memory technologies - such as phase-change memory (PCM) and memristors - have the potential to provide large, fast, non-volatile memory systems, changing the assumptions that motivated the design of current operating systems. This paper examines the implications of non-volatile memories on a number of OS mechanisms, functions, and properties.