FSL: Fast system launch through persistent computing with nonvolatile memory

Abstract

Next generation memory technologies, which we denote as new memory, have both nonvolatile and byte addressable properties. These characteristics are expected to bring changes to the conventional computer system structure. Most previous research on the use of new memory have been focused on how to efficiently store files, objects, and data structure while exploiting persistence in new memory. Unlike previous studies, this study focuses on what functional changes are possible in a computing system through the introduction of new memory. We propose to make use of the nonvolatile characteristic of new memory to change the booting techniques used in conventional computing systems. We present a new booting mechanism that we refer to as Fast System Launch (FSL). FSL enables persistent computing in which the state of the system remains intact even after the power is turned off and exploits this to significantly improve booting time even compared to conventional power management methods such as `sleep mode' and `hibernation mode'. To show the effectiveness of FSL, we implement FSL on an in-house embedded test board, which we refer to as the Tuna board, equipped with pseudo new memory. Through the use of FSL, boot time is reduced from the original boot time of 14 seconds to 0.087 seconds on the TUNA board using Ubuntu 14.04.