FPGA-enhanced data processing system using PCM technology

Abstract

Due to unique features, Storage class memory (SCM) technologies such as Phase change memory (PCM) open up new opportunities for architect engineers. In such a scenario, we present a true PCM storage system with an FPGA storage controller to explore ISP benefits. Our contributions are summarized as follows. 1) Propose a heterogeneous ISP architecture which uses FPGA working as storage controller and accelerator; 2) Offer a new research direction for designing storage devices which inherently support ISP; 3) Present a novel storage system which eliminate data transfer; 4) The first evaluation of ISP on a real SCM device; 5) Demonstrate significant performance gains by using efficient data flow and consuming extremely small amounts of host resources. Besides, the proposed system can be extended to handle other kinds of data applications by adding corresponding accelerator and data conversion module in FPGA. Multi-node system can be realized for more aggressive results.