DATE: Thursday, November 2, 2000
TIME: Noon - 1 pm
PLACE: Hammerschlag Hall D210

SPEAKER:
Steve Schlosser
Ph.D. Student
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, CMU

TITLE:
Designing Computer Systems with MEMS-Based Storage
http://lcs.web.cmu.edu/research/MEMS/index.html

ABSTRACT:
For decades the RAM-to-disk memory hierarchy gap has plagued computer architects. An exciting new storage technology based on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) is poised to fill a large portion of this performance gap, significantly reduce system power consumption, and enable many new applications. This talk will explore the system-level implications of integrating MEMS-based storage into the memory hierarchy. Results show that standalone MEMS-based storage reduces I/O stall times by 4-74X over disks and improves overall application runtimes by 1.9-4.4X. When used as on-board caches for disks, MEMS-based storage improves I/O response time by up to 3.5X. Further, the energy consumption of MEMS-based storage is 10-54X less than that of state-of-the-art low-power disk drives. The combination of the high-level physical characteristics of MEMS-based storage (small footprints, high shock tolerance) and the ability to directly integrate MEMS-based storage with processing leads to such new applications as portable gigabit storage systems and ubiquitous active storage nodes.

BIO:
Steve Schlosser is a third-year graduate student in Electrical and Computer Enginneering. His research interest is in novel storage devices and their effect on systems of the future. His undergraduate degree is also from CMU, and so he is well into his seventh year in Pittsburgh.

SDI / LCS Seminar Questions?
Karen Lindenfelser, 86716, or visit www.pdl.cmu.edu/SDI/