FDTL: a unified flash memory and hard disk translation layer

Flash memory and magnetic disks are two widely used forms of non-volatile storage in consumer electronics. Both forms of storage have their advantages and limitations. The present study describes the design and implementation of a unified flash memory and hard disk translation layer (FDTL) to improve the performance of hybrid storage containing flash memory and disk drives. In this scheme, randomly accessed and frequently read data are mapped into a flash device, whereas sequentially accessed, frequently written, and cold data are mapped into a disk drive. FDTL is a good fit for several kinds of consumer electronics that demand large capacity storage and require high throughput, low energy consumption, and low cost. A trace-driven simulation was implemented to evaluate FDTL. Experimental results show that the I/O performance of FDTL is superior to other storage schemes with similar capacity. FDTL increases the throughput by over 40% and saves energy by 28% compared with other storages schemes.