WildFire Embedded
(for Portable Devices)
WildFire Embedded speeds up smart
phones and tablets running Google's Android operating
system. WildFire Embedded is a software managed block
device which avoids the usual problems associated with
random writing to flash devices. By writing all data as
FIFO-ordered sequential writes, user blocks and control
information are written using atomic structures mapped
on top of standard block IO writes. WildFire works
with standard block storage devices, and does not
require special flash chip-level access. This
allows WildFire to work with existing hardware
configurations using standard storage topologies ranging
from direct attached flash to SD cards and eMMC modules.
WildFire's fine grain FTL approach
allows small random writes to operate at the linear
device's native write speeds. This test shows IO
performance for an A-Data 16GB class 10 micro SDHC card
running on a Motorola Xoom tablet with stock Android.
At 4K block size, the bare device is accelerated from
1.25 IOPS to over 4500 IOPS purely with WildFire
software. Write speed is flat no matter the write size.
AData 16GB Class10 Micro SDHC
Managed by WildFire |
Block
Size |
Read |
Write |
IOPS |
BW |
IOPS |
BW |
4K |
551 |
2205K |
4547 |
17.7M |
8K |
465 |
3724K |
2224 |
17.3M |
16K |
272 |
4358K |
1098 |
17.1M |
64K |
95 |
6105K |
269 |
16.8M |
256K |
38 |
9.5M |
69 |
17.2M |
1M |
11 |
11.0M |
16 |
17.1M |
4M |
3 |
12.7M |
4 |
17.5M |
|
|
AData 16GB Class10 Micro SDHC
without WildFire |
Block
Size
|
Read |
Write |
IOPS |
BW |
IOPS |
BW |
4K
|
644 |
2579K |
1 |
5734B |
8K
|
526 |
4214K |
1 |
11K |
16K
|
302 |
4838K |
1 |
25K |
64K
|
111 |
7155K |
1 |
76K |
256K
|
37 |
9.3M |
1 |
358K |
1M
|
11 |
11.7M |
1 |
1433K |
4M
|
3 |
13.5M |
1 |
4096K |
|
The ability to random write extremely
quickly increases the apparent responsiveness of any
device. Applications such as web browsing and mail will
feel more responsive. Many applications will install and
initiate significantly faster. WildFire also gets rid of
most stuttering, device stalls and non-responsiveness. A
report published in
Computer World reveals that Android stalls are
almost always caused by pending flash updates. It is
also important to note that when all data is written
linearly, flash device life can be greatly extended. But
what is most important to OEMs is that since WildFire is
a mature, low-cost solution to performance and
durability issues, there is an opportunity to
significantly reduce the overall manufacturing costs of
mobile devices by using less expensive components while
improving the user experience.
|