A novel NVM memory file system for edge intelligence

Edge intelligence (EI), as a combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and internet of things (IoT), is the key to realize an interconnected world of everything. EI needs to process the data collected by edge devices locally. For edge devices with insufficient computing power, a near data computing (NDC) system can provide local computing capability by adding a co-processing unit near the memory. NDC systems are extensively studied focused on the optimization of the hardware architecture but lack of universal and transparent system support. Meanwhile, we notice that non-volatile memory (NVM) plays an important role in edge intermittent computing. In this article, we propose a novel in-memory processing file system (IMPFS) based on NVM to provide general support for NDC system running on edge devices. IMPFS uses standard file system interfaces and is optimized for NVM and AI application management. To verify the IMPFS, a prototype system is designed. The results showed that the IMPFS can not only provide universal support for EI but also further improve the processing speed by reducing the redundant software overhead.