Dynamic voltage scaling of flash memory storage systems for low-power real-time embedded systems

Abstract

As applications become increasingly sophisticated and processing power increases, the most serious limitation on these devices is the available battery life. In this paper, we combine the dynamic voltage scaling technique with the real-time garbage collection mechanism to reduce the energy dissipation of flash memory storage systems. Then we propose an efficient on-line real-time scheduling algorithm with an objective to satisfy the response time of requests and, at the same time, to minimize the energy consumption of flash memory. The capability of the proposed mechanism is evaluated by a series of experiments over realistic traces and typical flash memory characteristics, for which we have very encouraging results.