A Fine-Grained Data Reconstruction Algorithm for Solid-State Disks

Abstract

Solid-state disks (SSDs) with high I/O performance are increasingly becoming popular. To extend the life time of flash memory, one can apply wear-leveling strategies to manage data blocks. However, wear-leveling strategies certainly inevitably degrade write performance. In addition to low write performance, wear-leveling strategies make one block unwritable when one bit of this block is invalid. Although data reconstruction techniques have been widely employed in disk arrays, the reconstruction techniques has not been studied in the context of solid-state disks. In this paper, we present a new fine-grained data-reconstruction algorithm for solid-state disks. The algorithm aims to provide a simple yet efficient wear-leveling strategy that improves both I/O performance and reliability of solid-state disks. Simulation experiments show that all data blocks have very similar in terms of erasure times. The number of extra erasures incurred by our algorithm is very marginal.