We build prototype storage systems based on next-generation memories to explore the future of fast storage. Our first prototype was Moneta, a PCIe-attached SSD that first demonstrated an OS by-pass interface for storage. Rather than rely on the operating system to access an SSD on the application’s behalf, Moneta takes over the file system’s permission checks so that the application can access storage directly. The result is dramatically faster performance and simpler, more flexible software.
With Moneta as starting point, we built a series of prototype SSDs that redefined the role that storage places play in computer systems:
- QuickSAN allowed SSDs to communicate directly with one another and for a large, distributed storage system.
- Onyx was the first publicly-demonstrated phase change memory SSD.
- Willow was the first SSD to provide a secure programming environment for executing user code in an SSD.
- Minerva used FPGAs to accelerate data-intensive computations in an SSD.
- MARS provided support for transactions processing.
Many of the ideas we explored with Moneta, Onyx, and Willow, have found their way into commercial products and inspired further research — Samsung ships SSDs that provide basic database functions and many researchers are now0 exploring how to move compute closer to storage. If you want to build high-impact systems like these, join our group.
Publications
- Willow: A User-Programmable SSD Proceedings of the 11th USENIX Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation (OSDI '14), 2014.
- From ARIES to MARS:Transaction Support for Next-Generation Solid-State Drives Proceedings of the 24th International Symposium on Operating Systems Principles (SOSP), 2013.
- QuickSAN: A Storage Area Network for Fast, Distributed, Solid State Disks ISCA '13: Proceeding of the 40th Annual International Symposium on Computer Architecture, 2013.
- Minerva: Accelerating Data Analysis in Next-Generation SSDs Proceedings of The 21st IEEE International Symposium on Field-Programmable Custom Computing Machines, 2013.
- Providing Safe, User Space Access to Fast, Solid State Disks Proceeding of the 17th international conference on Architectural support for programming languages and operating systems, 2012.
- Onyx: A Prototype Phase-Change Memory Storage Array Proceedings of the 3rd USENIX conference on Hot topics in storage and file systems, 2011.
- Moneta: A High-Performance Storage Array Architecture for Next-Generation, Non-volatile Memories Proceedings of the 2010 43rd Annual IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Microarchitecture, 2010.
- Understanding the Impact of Emerging Non-Volatile Memories on High-Performance, IO-Intensive Computing Proceedings of the 2010 ACM/IEEE International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis, 2010. (Nominated for Best Technical Student Paper).
- Quill: Exploiting Fast Non-Volatile Memory by Transparently Bypassing the File System Department of Computer Science amp; Engineering, University of California, San Diego technical report CS2013-0991, Jan 2013.