MEMS-based storage is an emerging non-volatile secondary storage technology. With fundamentally different underlying architectures, MEMS-based storage promises seek times 10-20 times faster than hard drives, storage densities 10 times greater, and power consumption an order of magnitude lower. Our investigations include physical device modeling, performance modeling and prediction, request scheduling, power management, and using MEMS as another layer in the storage hierarchy.

MEMS-based storage is a promising non-volatile secondary storage technology currently being developed. With fundamentally different underlying architectures, MEMS-based storage promises seek times 10-20 times faster than hard drives, storage densities 10 times greater, and power consumption an order of magnitude lower. It can provide several to tens of gigabyte highly reliable non-volatile storage in a single chip as small as a quarter, with low entry cost, low shock sensitivity, and potentially high embedded computing power.