P&S Understanding and Designing Modern Storage Systems - L1: Course Introduction (Spring 2026)

Why It Matters

Understanding modern SSD architecture and its challenges is essential for developing storage solutions that meet escalating performance and reliability demands across data‑center and consumer markets.

Key Takeaways

• Course teaches modern NAND flash SSD design fundamentals.
• Safari group focuses on robust, energy‑efficient, low‑latency architectures.
• SSDs combine multiple cores, DRAM, and flash dice in complex hierarchy.
• Flash translation layer manages wear‑leveling, garbage collection, and address mapping.
• Hands‑on projects explore near‑data processing and emerging non‑flash memory.

Summary

The video introduces the Spring 2026 iteration of the "Understanding and Designing Modern Storage Systems" course, led by Professor Onur Mutlu’s Safari Research Group at ETH Zurich, along with instructors Rakesh Nadig and Dr. Mohamed Sadati. It outlines the team’s expertise, spanning computer architecture, hardware security, bioinformatics, and especially storage system design, and highlights the group’s five research thrusts: robust, energy‑efficient, low‑latency, intelligent, and health‑focused architectures.

The instructors detail the core technical content: modern NAND flash SSDs, their layered architecture of embedded controllers, DRAM buffers, and multi‑die flash packages, and the unique constraints of flash memory such as erase‑before‑write, limited endurance, and asymmetric operation latencies. Central to managing these constraints is the Flash Translation Layer, which handles address translation, wear‑leveling, garbage collection, and I/O scheduling to deliver high performance while masking flash idiosyncrasies.

Examples from the group’s recent Safari Live workshop illustrate cutting‑edge research on NAND flash, new SSD designs, and near‑data processing. The course builds on three prior iterations, with lecture recordings available on YouTube, and promises to intersperse foundational lectures with the latest research findings, giving students exposure to both theory and practice.

The significance lies in equipping the next generation of engineers with hands‑on experience designing resilient, high‑performance storage systems—a critical capability as data‑intensive workloads demand ever‑greater capacity, speed, and energy efficiency. Graduates will be prepared to innovate in SSD firmware, hardware‑software co‑design, and emerging non‑flash memory technologies, directly impacting data‑center and consumer device markets.

Original Description

Project and Seminars Course: Understanding and Designing Modern Storage Systems, ETH Zürich, Spring 2026

(https://safari.ethz.ch/projects_and_seminars/spring2026/doku.php?id=modern_ssds)

Lecture 1: Course Introduction

Lecturer: Rakesh Nadig and Dr. Mohammad Sadrosadati

Date: February 27, 2026

Slides (pptx): https://safari.ethz.ch/projects_and_seminars/spring2026/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=pns_modern_storage_systems_spring2026_m1_courseintroduction.pptx

Slides (pdf): https://safari.ethz.ch/projects_and_seminars/spring2026/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=pns_modern_storage_systems_spring2026_m1_courseintroduction.pdf

Recommended Reading:

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A Modern Primer on Processing in Memory

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2012.03112.pdf

Memory-Centric Computing: Solving Computing's Memory Problem

https://www.arxiv.org/pdf/2505.00458

Memory-Centric Computing: Recent Advances in Processing-in-DRAM

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2412.19275

Intelligent Architectures for Intelligent Computing Systems

https://people.inf.ethz.ch/omutlu/pub/intelligent-architectures-for-intelligent-computingsystems-invited_paper_DATE21.pdf

RowHammer: A Retrospective

https://people.inf.ethz.ch/omutlu/pub/RowHammer-Retrospective_ieee_tcad19.pdf

Fundamentally Understanding and Solving RowHammer

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2211.07613.pdf

Accelerating Genome Analysis via Algorithm-Architecture Co-Design

https://people.inf.ethz.ch/omutlu/pub/AcceleratingGenomeAnalysis_dac23.pdf

From Molecules to Genomic Variations: Accelerating Genome Analysis via Intelligent Algorithms and Architectures

https://people.inf.ethz.ch/omutlu/pub/IntelligentGenomeAnalysis_csbj22.pdf

RECOMMENDED LECTURE VIDEOS & PLAYLISTS:

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Digital Design and Computer Architecture Spring 2025 Livestream Lectures Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubhxKNlOlRg&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi9Eo29LMgKVcaydS7V1zZW3&index=3

Fundamentals of Computer Architecture Fall 2025 Livestream Lectures Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKgMFj1eQQc&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi_ZMtqz1r-GHm-zzuE1QfIg&index=2

Seminar in Computer Architecture Spring 2025 Livestream Lectures Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqeKNZrLzng&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi-oIW66TLOjtiqQxlDwNHng&index=2

Computer Architecture Fall 2024 Lectures Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziMRjDlLEwo&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi-LfDdGgWyLcTSqzm6a26wD&index=2

Interview with Professor Onur Mutlu:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ffSEKZhmvo&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi8VrmOTz44l2WupethSdh-M&index=9

TCuARCH meets Prof. Onur Mutlu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Hpn4SAX0dI

Arch. Mentoring Workshop @ISCA'21 - Doing Impactful Research

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83tlorht7Mc

The Story of RowHammer Lecture:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgd7PHQQ1AI&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi8D_5MGV6EnXEJHnV2YFBJl&index=39

Accelerating Genome Analysis Lecture:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7sn41lH-4A&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi8D_5MGV6EnXEJHnV2YFBJl&index=41

Memory-Centric Computing Systems Tutorial at IEDM 2021:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3sEaINPBOE&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi8D_5MGV6EnXEJHnV2YFBJl&index=35

Intelligent Architectures for Intelligent Machines Lecture:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTieZPY4Wmc&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi8D_5MGV6EnXEJHnV2YFBJl&index=38

Featured Lectures:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVYCchBGNVc&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi8VrmOTz44l2WupethSdh-M&index=1