Empirical evaluation of NAND flash memory performance

Reports of NAND flash device testing in the literature have for the most part been limited to examination of circuit-level parameters on raw flash chips or prototypes, and systemlevel parameters on entire storage subsystems. However, there has been little examination of system-level parameters of raw devices, such as mean latency and endurance values. We report the results of such tests on a variety of devices. Read, program, and erase latency were found to align closely with manufacturer’s specified “typical” values in almost all cases. Program/erase endurance, however, was found to exceed specified minimum values, often by as much as a factor of 100. In addition significant performance changes were found with wear. These changes may be used to track wear, and in addition have significant implications for system performance over the lifespan of a device. Finally, random write patterns which incur performance penalties on current flashbased memory systems were found to in...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: SIGOPS
• Authors: Peter Desnoyers
• Keywords: NAND flash Device, Parameters, Raw flash Chips, SIGOPS 2010