Performing sound flash device measurements: some lessons from uFLIP

It is amazingly easy to get meaningless results when measuring flash devices, partly because of the peculiarity of flash memory, but primarily because their behavior is determined by layers of complex, proprietary, and undocumented software and hardware. In this demonstration, we share the lessons we learnt developing the uFLIP benchmark and conducting experiments with a wide range of flash devices. We illustrate the problems that are actual obstacles to sound performance and energy measurements, and we show how to mitigate the effects of these problems. We also present the uFLIP web site and its on-line visualization tool that should help the research community investigate flash device behavior. Categories and Subject Descriptors B.3.2 [Memory Structures]: Design Styles—mass storage (flash devices); B.8.2 [Performance and Reliability]: Performance Analysis and Design Aids General Terms Measurement, Performance, Experimentation Keywords Flash devices, Benchmarking, Methodology...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2010
• Where: SIGMOD
• Authors: Matias Bjørling, Lionel Le Folgoc, Ahmed Mseddi, Philippe Bonnet, Luc Bouganim, Björn Þór Jónsson
• Keywords: Database, Energy Measurement, Keywords Flash Devices, SIGMOD 2010, flash Devices