Paper Title: Table-less Controllers for Persistent Memory in Datacenter Applications

Paper Abstract: Storage Class Memory (SCM) is currently being widely promoted as a way to achieve DRAM speeds at NAND flash level prices and density. 3D XPoint is a key technology proposed for its implementation. However, SCM requires a different controller architecture from NAND for two critical reasons. One is that the firmware-based architecture used for wear leveling and device management is too slow for SCM. The other is that table-based FTLs are too expensive for the 64-byte mode used in NVDIMM due to the large table size. A new table-less controller architecture meets the needs of SCM. It offers fewer states, avoids the requirement for backup energy sources, and resolves the difficult synchronization issue. Test setups show performance comparable to that of 3D XPoint with significant improvements possible by replacing the FPGA implementation with an ASIC.

Paper Author: Bernard Shung, President, Wolley

Author Bio: Bernard Shung is Founder/President of Wolley, a startup controller technology company focused on storage class memory (SCM). He holds 13 patents, including one for the wear leveling for SCM used in the Wolley controllers. He has over 25 years experience in high-level positions in the semiconductor industry including both startups and major companies such as SK Hynix, Broadcom, and IBM. He was General Manager of New Business Development at Mediatek and Sr VP Engineering at Link_A_Media, a leading developer of SoCs for storage devices. He earned a PhD in electrical engineering and computer science at University of California, Berkeley, has published several technical articles, and has served on the faculty of National Chiao Tung University (Taiwan).