Hybrid Main Memory based Buffer Cache Scheme by Using Characteristics of Mobile Applications

Mobile devices employ buffer cache mechanisms, just as in computer systems such as desktops or servers, to mitigate the performance gap between main memory and secondary storage. However, DRAM has a problem in that it accelerates battery consumption by performing refresh operations periodically to maintain the stored data. In this paper, we propose a novel buffer cache scheme to increase the battery lifecycle in mobile devices based on a hybrid main memory architecture consisting of DRAM and non-volatile PCM. We also suggest a new buffer cache policy that allocates buffers based on process states to optimize the performance and endurance of PCM. In particular, our algorithm allocates each page to the appropriate position corresponding to the state of the application that owns the page, and tries to ensure a rapid response of foreground applications even with a small amount of DRAM memory. The experimental results indicate that the proposed scheme reduces the elapsed time of foreground applications by 58% on average and power consumption by 23% on average without negatively impacting the performance of background applications.