Flash-aware Virtual Memory System for Consumer Electronics

Abstract

In this paper, an efficient flash-aware virtual memory system called FVMS is proposed for consumer electronics equipped with flash memory as secondary storage media. It introduces: 1) a redesigned read-ahead algorithm to delay the execution of page replacement algorithm, 2) a flash-aware page replacement algorithm considering access frequency, recent access time, and asymmetric I/O operation costs to reduce the number of flash page write operations and prevent serious degradation of page hit ratio, and 3) an efficient garbage collection policy taking into consideration the number of valid pages within each block and the number of erase operations on each block in order to reduce the cleaning cost and improve the degree of wear leveling. Experimental results show that the proposed FVMS outperforms existing virtual memory systems for flash memory in terms of energy consumption and the degree of wear leveling.