TY - GEN
T1 - Future cache design using STT MRAMs for improved energy efficiency
T2 - 49th Annual Design Automation Conference, DAC '12
AU - Park, Sang Phill
AU - Gupta, Sumeet
AU - Mojumder, Niladri
AU - Raghunathan, Anand
AU - Roy, Kaushik
PY - 2012/7/11
Y1 - 2012/7/11
N2 - Spin-transfer torque magnetic RAM (STT MRAM) has emerged as a promising candidate for on-chip memory in future computing platforms. We present a cross-layer (device-circuit-architecture) approach to energy-efficient cache design using STT MRAM. At the device and circuit levels, we consider different genres of MTJs and bitcells, and evaluate their impact on the area, energy and performance of caches. In addition, we propose micro-architectural techniques viz. sequential cache read and partial cache line update, which exploit the non-volatility of STT MRAM to further improve energy efficiency of STT MRAM caches. A detailed comparison of STT MRAM caches with SRAM-based caches is also presented. Our results indicate that the proposed optimizations significantly enhance the efficiency of STT MRAM for designing lower level caches.
AB - Spin-transfer torque magnetic RAM (STT MRAM) has emerged as a promising candidate for on-chip memory in future computing platforms. We present a cross-layer (device-circuit-architecture) approach to energy-efficient cache design using STT MRAM. At the device and circuit levels, we consider different genres of MTJs and bitcells, and evaluate their impact on the area, energy and performance of caches. In addition, we propose micro-architectural techniques viz. sequential cache read and partial cache line update, which exploit the non-volatility of STT MRAM to further improve energy efficiency of STT MRAM caches. A detailed comparison of STT MRAM caches with SRAM-based caches is also presented. Our results indicate that the proposed optimizations significantly enhance the efficiency of STT MRAM for designing lower level caches.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84863554409&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84863554409&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/2228360.2228447
DO - 10.1145/2228360.2228447
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84863554409
SN - 9781450311991
T3 - Proceedings - Design Automation Conference
SP - 492
EP - 497
BT - Proceedings of the 49th Annual Design Automation Conference, DAC '12
Y2 - 3 June 2012 through 7 June 2012
ER -