Rewritable storage channels with limited number of rewrite iterations

Abstract

We consider storage channels that admit optional reading and rewriting of the content at a given cost. This is a general class of channels that models many nonvolatile memories. We present recent results on such rewritable channels with constraints on both the maximum and the average number of atomic rewrite iterations. We derive a general lower capacity bound for rewritable storage channels impaired by additive noise. For the special case of uniform noise, we present tight upper and lower capacity bounds and suggest some capacity-achieving coding techniques. © 2010 IEEE.