Haris Volos

Storage-class memory technologies such as phase-change memory and memristors present a radically different interface to storage than existing block devices. As a result, they provide a unique opportunity to re-examine storage architectures. We find that the existing kernel-based stack of components, well suited for disks, unnecessarily limits the design and implementation of file systems for this new technology.

Preserving application data integrity is a paramount duty of computing systems. Failures such as power outages are major perils: A sudden crash during an update may corrupt data or effectively destroy it by corrupting metadata. Applications protect data integrity by using update mechanisms that are atomic with respect to failure; such mechanisms promise to restore data to a consistent state following a crash. Unfortunately, the checkered history of failure-atomic update mechanisms precludes blind trust.