Extending Flash Lifetime in Embedded Processors by Expanding Analog Choice

We extend the lifetime of Flash memory in embedded processors by exploiting the fact that data from sensors is inherently analog. Prior work in the computer architecture community has assumed that all data is digital and has overlooked the opportunities available when working with analog data, such as the data recorded by sensors. In this paper, we introduce redundancy into the quantization of sensor data in order to provide several alternative representations. Notably, we tradeoff distortion—the difference between the sensed analog value and the digital quantization of that value—to improve lifetime. Our simulations show that when combining rate, distortion, and lifetime tradeoffs we can extend Flash lifetime at a far smaller capacity cost compared to prior work. More specifically the simulated system shows that it is possible to achieve up to <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2.75 \times$ </tex-math></inline-formula> less capacity cost compared to redundant Flash memory and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1.29 \times$ </tex-math></inline-formula> less capacity cost compared to the state of the art coding schemes.