language: en

[DRAFT 1]

January 23, 1996

The Impact of Trends in Technology on File System Design

Michael D. Dahlin
University of California, Berkeley
dahlin@cs.berkeley.edu

Abstract This paper describes several key trends in technology that will inuence the design of file systems for the next decade. It first outlines the basic trends to hardware performance that underlie file system design. These trends affect both user demands on file systems and trade-offs in their design. It then considers how technologies will drive more demanding file system workloads that will require scalable file systems. Next, it outlines how opportunities raised by these low-level technology trends impact specific aspects of the xFS file systems serverless design [Dahlin et al., 1994b, Anderson et al., 1996]. Finally, to put xFSs serverless approach in context, it discusses other technology trends that affect file systems but that are not explicitly addressed in the serverless design.

1. Trends in Technology