Abstract
Storage Class Memory (SCM) is emerging as a viable solution to lift DRAM's scalability limits, both in capacity and energy consumption. Indeed, SCM combines the economic characteristics, non-volatility, and density of traditional storage media with the low latency and byte-addressability of DRAM. In this paper we survey research works on how SCM can be leveraged in databases and explore different solutions ranging from using SCM as disk replacement, to single-level storage architectures, where SCM is used as universal memory (i.e., as memory and storage at the same time), together with the challenges that stem from these opportunities. Finally, we synthesize our findings into recommendations on how to exploit the full potential of SCM in next-generation database architectures.
About the authors
Ismail Oukid is a PhD candidate at TU Dresden and SAP SE, Germany, working closely with Intel on paving the path for SCM-based databases. His areas of interest include database kernel optimization for modern hardware, memory management, and query processing. He received a Master's degree from Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP – Ensimag) in 2013.
SAP SE, Dietmar-Hopp Allee 16, 69190 Walldorf, Germany
Robert Kettler was born in Heidelberg, Germany in 1990. He received the Bachelor degree in Computer Science at the University of Applied Sciences Mannheim in 2015. He is still studying for the Master in Computer Science while working at SAP. His research interests include computer graphics, high performance computing, program optimization and machine learning.
SAP SE, Dietmar-Hopp Allee 16, 69190 Walldorf, Germany
Dr. Thomas Willhalm is an engineer in Intel's Software and Services Group, based in Germany. He works and consults with independent software vendors in optimizing their software for Intel architecture. His areas of expertise are enterprise applications and databases with a focus on SIMD and next-generation non-volatile memory solutions.
Intel Deutschland GmbH, Dornacher Strasse 1, 85622 Feldkirchen, Germany
©2017 Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
