DenseFS: a Cache-Compact Filesystem

As nonvolatile memory technologies with access latencies comparable to DRAM proliferate, the CPU performance of previously storage-bound workloads becomes increasingly important. In this paper we examine the effects of the filesystem on cache behavior, a key aspect of CPU performance. We then develop DenseFS, a specialized filesystem that aims for a highly compact cache footprint and hence tries to minimize its cache pollution and the performance penalties it incurs. We find that DenseFS is effective in reducing the performance penalty of filesystem operations on user code, and can achieve dramatic reductions in cache miss rates as compared to existing filesystems.