Real-time emulation and analysis of multiple NAND flash channels in solid-state storage device

Abstract

NAND Flash is the most prevalent memory technology used today in data storage systems covering a wide range of applications, from consumer devices to high-end enterprise systems. In this work, we present a modular and versatile FPGA-based platform that achieves accurate emulation of multiple NAND Flash channels. The NAND Flash emulator is based on an expandable and reconfigurable architecture that can be used for developing and testing new NAND Flash controllers and for analysing the behaviour of existing NAND Flash controllers and/or host device drivers. The presented NAND Flash emulator is based on PCIe-based FPGA boards attached to a high-end server, supports standard memory interfaces, responds to all memory commands in proper time and has the capability to emulate memory space in the range of a few TBs. The NAND Flash emulator has been prototyped and tested, and experimental results demonstrate that all timing requirements are satisfied under maximum read/write workloads. The NAND Flash emulator also includes a hardware tracer unit that records information of all commands exchanged at the NAND Flash interfaces along with high resolution timestamps. The recorded information can be used to analyse higher level functions, like wear leveling and garbage collection, and combined with other software tools for analysing cognitive functions. Experimental results demonstrate the advantage of using this emulator for analysing how host device drivers implement wear leveling and garbage collection functions.