Performance Evaluation of Three Architectural Variants for Multi-sled MEMS Storage

MEMS storage technology promises appealing features, such as ultrahigh density and low cost. To stay competitive, however, its performance must improve to fulfil the increasing I/O requirements in first-tier applications. Further, it must be energy-efficient. The maturity of MEMS techniques invites for a change in the basic single-medium architecture of MEMS storage. We propose three MEMS architectures of multiple media sleds. The three architectures vary in their performance and cost, and consume 35% less energy than the basic single-sled architecture of MEMS storage. We compare their timing performance in mobile, streaming, and database applications, and study their performance scalability.