File systems using non-volatile RAM (NVRAM) promise great improvements in file system performance over conventional disk storage. However, current technology allows for a relatively small amount of NVRAM, limiting the effectiveness of such an approach. We have developed a prototype in-memory file system which utilizes data compression on inodes, and which has preliminary support for compression of file blocks. Our file system, mramfs, is also based on data structures tuned for storage efficiency in non-volatile memory. This prototype will allow us to examine how to more efficiently use this limited resource. Simulations have shown that inodes can be reduced to 15
Nathan K. Edel, Deepa Tuteja, Ethan L. Miller, Sco