Non-volatile translation layer for PCM+NAND in wearable devices

Recently, there have been approaches of using phase change memory (PCM) for the wearable devices. PCM can prolong the lifetime of the wearable devices, because it can endure approximately 10⁸ writes per cell. Unfortunately, because previous well-known software translation algorithms were designed to use DRAM as the main memory, they execute frequent write operations on the PCM. As a solution, this paper proposes a software layer called "load-balancing flash translation layer (Load-FTL)" that enhances the performance of the PCM-based wearable devices by efficiently identifying the hot data and managing them in the PCM. Furthermore, Load-FTL prolongs the durability of the PCM using a window-based wear-leveling algorithm.