Recent Advances in Flash Solutions

In this keynote talk, I will deep dive into two topics related with now common flash memory solutions: Multi-streaming and In-Storage Computing (ISC). Multi-streaming allows upper-level software to see "streams" - internal parallelism within a solid-state drive (SSD) - in a disciplined way. Proper use of multiple streams segregates data having different properties. Our study using popular NoSQL DB engines shows that significant gains can be achieved in terms of steady-state SSD performance and device lifetime. ISC refers to new capabilities of running user-written codes within the SSD, helped by a software framework (and hardware IPs). By exploiting ample bandwidth of flash chips and processing cycles within the SSD, one can significantly improve the system throughput by balancing work between compute resources and/or shortening data trips. I will discuss results of several case studies using database and data analytics workloads.