Flash Memory Garbage Collection in Hard Real-Time Systems

Abstract

Due to advances in capacity, speed, and economics, NAND-based flash memory technology is increasingly integrated into all types of computing systems, ranging from enterprise servers to embedded devices. However, due to its unpredictable up-date behavior and time consuming garbage collection mechanism, NAND-based flash memory is difficult to integrate into hard-real-time embedded systems. In this thesis, I propose a performance model for flash memory garbage collection that can be used in conjunction with a number of different garbage collection strategies. I describe how to model the cost of reactive (lazy) garbage collection and compare it to that of more proactive schemes. I develop formulas to assess the schedulability of hard real- time periodic task sets under simplified memory consumption models. Results show that I prove the proactive schemes achieve the larger maximum schedulable utilization than the traditional garbage collection mechanism for hard real-time systems in flash memory.