Advances in data storage technology have been crucial to the evolution of the modern information age, enabling and accelerating the invention of new information-related applications in consumer entertainment, personal and business computing, enterprise data management, and scientific research. High-capacity, non-volatile, solid-state drives (SSDs) are in the process of revolutionizing this world of data storage. SSDs have a number of advantages compared to conventional disk and tape drives, notably in shock resistance, reduced power consumption, and faster data access. Although currently less competitive in some storage applications with respect to cost per bit, write latency, and product lifetime, continuing advances in SSDs based upon several non-volatile memory (NVM) technologies are setting the stage for a revolution in how computer systems and applications access and manipulate persistent data. Improved flash memories - along with emerging technologies such as magnetic RAM (MRAM), phase-change memories (PCM), spin-torque transfer memories (STTM), resistive RAM (RRAM), and the memristor - are driving designers to rethink how they integrate storage devices into computing systems, how operating systems manage data, and how applications create and process information. Realizing the full potential of NVM technologies is an exciting and important challenge with enormous societal consequences. The proposed workshop is the fifth in the annual series of Non-volatile Memories Workshops (NVMWs) that have been held on the campus of the University of California, San Diego. The primary objective continues to be the development of a "vertical" vision for research on the role of NVM technologies in an ever-increasing number of application scenarios, ranging from data-intensive computing systems to super high-resolution video games. As the capabilities of NVM-based storage rapidly evolve, it is more critical than ever that researchers at each level of the system "stack" be aware of the needs, challenges, and opportunities associated with the other levels. The workshop provides researchers and practitioners the opportunity to gain a broader understanding of what is needed to accelerate the development and adoption of NVM-based storage technologies, and to establish relationships that will provide the basis for further advances. The workshop program includes a half-day tutorial session, two keynote addresses, approximately 32 technical presentations selected by an expert Program Committee, and a poster session. Topics addressed range from new NVM device technologies, data handling techniques, system architectures, and future NVM applications in areas such as distributed storage networks, neuromorphic computing, high-speed data caching, and speech recognition. Open registration for the entire workshop is intended to encourage broad participation from academia, industry, and government. The technical program is structured to provide a unique educational opportunity, particularly for students and researchers who are new to the area.
Intellectual Merit: This workshop will address fundamental problems in the science, engineering, and application of high-performance data storage systems based upon non-volatile memories. This includes the study of nanoscale physical phenomena that permit storage of information; the development of coding algorithms for reliable, persistent, and secure data storage; the analysis of system architectures for data-intensive computing; and the conception of new paradigms for non-volatile storage of data in a variety of applications.
Broader Impacts: The exchange of knowledge and the generation of novel ideas that result from the workshop will have significant impact on the computing and data storage industries, both vitally important to the national economy. The educational component of the workshop will benefit students and postdoctoral researchers, as well as more senior participants. An archival website will provide a lasting record of the workshop proceedings and a resource for the scientific community and general public.
Like its predecessors, the fifth workshop covered a range of topics related to non-volatile memories, including basic memory device technologies; data encoding for reliability, persistence, and security; computer system architectures; and the application of non-volatile memories in video game systems, smartphones, file system, data-intensive computing, cloud-based and enterprise storage. Three organizational principles were adhered to: (1) active encouragement and support of workshop participation by students, post-doctoral researchers, and junior faculty members; (2) establishment of a diverse, expert Program Committee to evaluate submitted presentation abstracts, ensuring a technical program that is broad in scope and exceptional in quality; and (3) an invited tutorial session on a technical topic, presented in a manner that is accessible to all workshop participants, and authoritative invited keynote speakers on both days of the technical presentation sessions. Specifically, the NVMW 2014 program began with a tutorial entitled "Data Integrity and Reliability in Storage Stacks," presented by Dr. Cheng Huang of Microsoft Research and Dr. Hao Zhong of Fusion-io. The technical program, assembled by the 29-member Program Committee, featured a session on Devices, three sessions on Data Encoding, three sessions on System Architectures, and a session on Applications. In total, there were 32 technical presentations on diverse topics in the four general categories. An additional 31 submissions were represented in the poster session. The keynote addresses that opened each day of technical sessions were another highlight of the meeting. John Scaramuzzo, Senior Vice-President of Enterprise Storage Solutions at SanDisk spoke on "The Flash Transformed Data Center" and Dr. Kaladhar Voruganti, Senior Technical Director, Advanced Technology Group at NetApp shared his perspectives on "NVM and New Storage Design Centers." The workshop attracted 235 registered attendees, with representatives from 30 universities, over 40 industrial R&D labs, and 5 national and international research organizations. More than 25% of the participants were graduate students and post-doctoral researchers, and travel grants were provided to all who requested one, thanks to the support provided by this NSF Grant (ECCS-1427680). A website has been created to serve as an archival record of the proceedings of NVMW 2014 and a resource for the general public. The website includes a downloadable workshop program, as well as links to presentation slides of the tutorial, keynote addresses, and 29 of the talks in the technical sessions. The NVMW 2014 website, which also includes links to the archival websites created for the previous four NVMWs, can be found at the following URL: http://nvmw.ucsd.edu/2014/ .
