以IBM Cell平台作為網路儲存伺服器之設計與建構

Abstract

網路儲存伺服器 (NAS) 是目前透過網路分享儲存體很受歡迎的一種方式。在最近幾年，網路儲存伺服器的製造廠商擷取系統晶片技術的優點來降低製造成本，並在網路儲存伺服器上整合許多加值服務來吸引顧客。現在市面上，一台入門的網路儲存伺服器提供了如：P2P應用程式、相簿功能、多媒體串流伺服器、即時監控系統的加值服務。整體來說，影響網路儲存伺服器的設計與使用者經驗的因素是成本效益比，管理方便，加值服務，與資料安全。 Sony PlatStation 3 (PS3) 是一台家庭多媒體遊戲機，配有一個功能強大的IBM Cell處理器與一台藍光光碟機，加上其他的功能包裝，價格與入門的網路儲存伺服器機種卻相去不遠。以其較快速的處理器，PS3在許多應用上表現的都比價格相近的Synology DS-207+來的好，但是PS3卻不具備網路儲存伺服器的功能。 本篇論文介紹了在PS3上設計與建構網路儲存伺服器。除了一般在網路儲存伺服器上常見的功能之外，我們利用了IBM Cell處理器中的Synergistic Processing Elements (SPE)來加速處理一些偏重運算的應用程式。我們的研究成功地在PS3上整合並加速網路儲存伺服器的服務，並且測試結果顯示，相對於價格相當的網路儲存伺服器，PS3在即時監控以及多媒體方面的應用展示出較佳的成本效益比。而在使用SPE加速臉部偵測的方面，相對於沒有使用SPE來說，我們可以達到最多9.52倍的加速。 關鍵字：網路儲存伺服器，PlayStation 3, IBM Cell processor, P2P, 即時監控

Network Attached Storage (NAS) servers are popular nowadays for sharing storage over the network. In recent years, NAS manufacturers took advantage of the System-on-Chip (SoC) technologies to reduce the cost of NAS servers and integrated many value-add features to attract customers. Value-add features such as peer-to-peer (P2P) applications, photo viewers, media players, and surveillance applications are offered by an entry-level NAS product on the market today. Overall, cost/performance ratios, administrative convenience, value-add features, and data security are the factors that influence the design and the user experience on NAS servers. The Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home multimedia and game console with a powerful IBM Cell processor and a Blu-ray Disc reader, in a compact package which costs about the same as an entry-level NAS server. With a much faster processor, the PS3 outperforms the similarily priced Synology DS-207+ in many applications, but misses a NAS functionality. In this thesis, we present the design and implementation of a NAS server with the PS3. In addition to the common features seen on NAS servers, we utilized the Synergistic Processing Elements (SPE) in the IBM Cell processor to accelerate compute-intensive applications. Our work successfully integrated NAS services and accelerated features on the PS3, and our results show that the PS3 offers higher cost/performance for surveillance and multimedia than similarly priced NAS servers. For accelerating of face detection with using 0 SPE as the baseline, we get at most 9.52 speedup. KEYWORDS: NAS, PlayStation 3, IBM Cell processor, P2P, surveillance.