A cost-aware page replacement algorithm for NAND flash based mobile embedded systems
Junseok Park, Hyejeong Lee, Seunghwan Hyun, Kern Koh, Hyokyung Bahn · 2009
NAND flash memory is widely used as secondary storage in mobile embedded systems such as cellular phones and digital cameras. These systems usually employ a compressed file system (CFS) to store system files which are fixed during the design phase, in combination with a normal file system to store data files. Since retrieving pages from a CFS requires additional decompression time, it is reasonable to grant them higher priorities when making a page replacement decision. In this paper, we present a new page replacement algorithm for NAND flash memory based embedded systems that considers asymmetric operation cost of each page. The proposed algorithm considers the decompression cost of a page from CFS as well as the asymmetric I/O costs of reads and writes in flash memory. To do this, the algorithm partitions the memory space into a read area, a write area, and a compressed area depending on different operation costs. The size of each area is then dynamically adjusted based on the change of access patterns and the contribution to reducing the I/O costs. Trace-driven simulations show that the proposed algorithm improves the I/O performance of mobile embedded systems significantly. Specifically, it reduces I/O time by 4.8-53.3% compared to widely acknowledged algorithms such as CLOCK, CAR, and CFLRU.