Using dynamic voltage scaling for energy-efficient flash-based storage devices

Abstract

NAND flash memory is commonly known as a power-efficient storage medium. Because of the increasing complexity of flash-based storage devices, however, it is more difficult to achieve good power-efficiency without considering an energy-efficient storage device design. In this paper, we investigate the potential benefit of dynamic voltage/frequency scaling (DVFS) on the energy-efficiency of flash-based storage devices. We first develop a performance/power model for a flash device by using an FPGA-based flash device platform. We then propose a simple DVFS heuristic algorithm that exploits workload fluctuations of a flash device to achieve a significant reduction in energy consumption without performance degradation. Experimental results show that a flash device with DVFS can reduce energy consumption by up to 20%-30%.