Device state recovery in non-volatile main memory systems

Abstract

This paper proposes a scheme to recover the state of peripheral devices in non-volatile main memory systems so that the system resumes its execution after an unpredictable power failure. Our scheme is software-based approach and accomplishes the recoverable system without complex hardware equipments. First, the requirements for maintaining consistency are discussed based on the concepts of distributed message-passing systems. Next, the application to a device driver is illustrated using an example. Experiments with UART and network devices showed that the system restarted properly after a power failure, and that system performance was barely decreased.