Hybrid solid state drives for improved performance and enhanced lifetime

Abstract

As the market becomes more competitive, SSD manufacturers are moving from SLC (Single-Level Cell) to MLC (Multi-Level Cell) flash memory chips that store two bits per cell as building blocks for SSDs. Recently, TLC chips, which store three bits per cell, is being considered as a viable solution due to their low cost. However, performance and lifetime of TLC chips are considerably limited and thus, pure TLC-based SSDs may not be viable as a general storage device. In this paper, we propose a hybrid SSD solution, namely HySSD, where SLC and TLC chips are used together to form an SSD solution performing in par with SLC-based products. Based on an analytical model, we propose a near optimal data distribution scheme that distributes data among the SLC and TLC chips for a given workload such that performance or lifetime may be optimized. Experiments with two types of SSDs both based on DiskSim with SSD Extension show that the analytic model approach can dynamically adjust data distribution as workloads evolve to enhance performance or lifetime.