Reducing Write Amplification of DM-SMR Disks by Shingle-aware Persistent Cache

Reducing Write Amplification of DM-SMR Disks by Shingle-aware Persistent Cache | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Reducing Write Amplification of DM-SMR Disks by Shingle-aware Persistent Cache Tianming Yang, Jing Zhang, HaitaoWu Wu This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8823027/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Revision Version 1 posted 11 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) technology is a cutting-edge disk tech that boosts areal density via overlapping track writing. However, track overlapping makes SMR devices unable to support in place updates on shingled tracks, risking data corruption and degrading random write performance. DM-SMR devices use an internal persistent cache to absorb writes and persist them later on in batches during the garbage collection process to maintain compatibility. In this paper, we propose a new shingle aware persistent cache cleaning policy for DM-SMR drives. Unlike traditional management policies, our new policy first merges cached updates by flushing writes that can be safely written to the disk, i.e., in the shingle direction, so that the cache space can be freed without incurring the cost of read-modify-write. In order to proactively free up more cache space at once, we adopt a delayed write-back strategy by recording the data blocks that can be safely written back to the disk, as well as the dependency relationships between them. Through dynamically and proactively releasing cache space, the frequency of garbage collection can be effectively reduced. Our evaluations have shown that our persistent cache management policy delivers better performance (by up to 3.3X) via dramatically reducing write amplification associated with persistent cache cleaning and alleviating fragmented reads. Physical sciences/Engineering Physical sciences/Mathematics and computing Physical sciences/Physics Disk Storage Shingled Magnetic Recording Technology SMR Disk RMW Amplification Persistent Cache Shingle-aware Persistent Cache Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files skylightandYCSB.zip skylightandYCSB.zip Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Revision Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 12 May, 2026 Reviews received at journal 07 May, 2026 Reviews received at journal 22 Apr, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 22 Apr, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 10 Apr, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 26 Mar, 2026 Reviewers invited by journal 24 Mar, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 24 Mar, 2026 Editor invited by journal 10 Mar, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 05 Mar, 2026 First submitted to journal 05 Mar, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8823027","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":612329414,"identity":"f0f835a6-301a-44c5-8213-7b730c1c25bf","order_by":0,"name":"Tianming Yang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Huanghuai University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Tianming","middleName":"","lastName":"Yang","suffix":""},{"id":612329415,"identity":"53ab9344-57ea-439c-8a23-52ef5cde348f","order_by":1,"name":"Jing Zhang","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAABC0lEQVRIie3QMUsDMRTA8XcErsuTrm8Q7isEDg7BUr9KQuGmoyCFIljwRLjRuf0W5+IcCaRL7a0HdSmCizccOCumCHXKlW6C+UMgQ34kLwA+359MK9VeDcRuy+xCu/gBYuR2vkqPIhjHJ4XeEzhIoluVEIbVmC+f9ftlMTyF3t0jwezFSYJcpUS4mfDVOD1fFCMENFMC8+YkDJQhThtZqiyxL2QIlCUU5NpJQngqSPC1LKtmR24QoqabIGjGlVCyrLP41f6DvQW7iX11sM3VSC7qJmG4XmKI6eRMGDeJ5lWrP7+G8r7K4g+cXl/0e/qhbmduAqR+56Kf6WzCDQD6+X7L2q6DPp/P93/7BsUiV1OvbOCmAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"Huanghuai University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Jing","middleName":"","lastName":"Zhang","suffix":""},{"id":612329416,"identity":"e6f354b6-c8eb-49ab-9e1a-51c6b9b78402","order_by":2,"name":"HaitaoWu Wu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Huanghuai University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"HaitaoWu","middleName":"","lastName":"Wu","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-02-08 16:24:34","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8823027/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8823027/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":105446487,"identity":"e5d62e89-1737-49e6-b5e5-267eb16af95e","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-26 07:20:44","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":892163,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscriptrevised1.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8823027/v1_covered_1ba89f8f-f299-46a8-90e9-8481e1662d8e.pdf"},{"id":105446480,"identity":"27def323-17ce-4784-bfc0-be3e7be0d18f","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-26 07:20:19","extension":"zip","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":620056139,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"skylightandYCSB.zip","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8823027/v1/31e493949b21ddfe8cd1531e.zip"},{"id":105446481,"identity":"33e03029-e716-486d-ac3c-9e84854472df","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-26 07:20:38","extension":"zip","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":623635151,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"skylightandYCSB.zip","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8823027/v1/d5c0b5591bd06a34335e88a6.zip"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Reducing Write Amplification of DM-SMR Disks by Shingle-aware Persistent Cache","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"scientific-reports","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"scirep","sideBox":"Learn more about [Scientific Reports](http://www.nature.com/srep/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Scientific Reports","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Scientific Reports","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Disk Storage, Shingled Magnetic Recording Technology, SMR Disk, RMW Amplification, Persistent Cache, Shingle-aware Persistent Cache ","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8823027/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8823027/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) technology is a cutting-edge disk tech that boosts areal density via overlapping track writing. However, track overlapping makes SMR devices unable to support in place updates on shingled tracks, risking data corruption and degrading random write performance. DM-SMR devices use an internal persistent cache to absorb writes and persist them later on in batches during the garbage collection process to maintain compatibility. In this paper, we propose a new shingle aware persistent cache cleaning policy for DM-SMR drives. Unlike traditional management policies, our new policy first merges cached updates by flushing writes that can be safely written to the disk, i.e., in the shingle direction, so that the cache space can be freed without incurring the cost of read-modify-write. In order to proactively free up more cache space at once, we adopt a delayed write-back strategy by recording the data blocks that can be safely written back to the disk, as well as the dependency relationships between them. 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