An overview on MEMS-based storage, its research issues and open problems

Abstract

A disruptive new storage technology based on Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) is emerging as an exciting complement to the memory hierarchy. This study reviews and summarizes the current research about integrating this new technology into computer systems from four levels: device, architecture, system and application. In addition, several potential research issues in MEMS storage are identified, including (1) exploiting idle read/write tips to perform prefetching, (2) reversal access to save seek time, (3) fault-tolerance design inside storage devices, (4) power consumption modeling, (5) reevaluation of existing disk-type I/O optimization algorithms.