Performance Analysis For Using Non-Volatile Memory Dimms: Opportunities And Challenges
Keywords
Application analysis; Multi-level memory; Simulation
Abstract
DRAM scalability is becoming more challenging, pushing the focus of the research community towards alternative memory technologies. Many emerging non-volatile memory (NVM) devices are proving themselves to be good candidates to replace DRAM in the coming years. For example, the recently announced 3D-XPoint memory by Intel/Micron promises latencies that are comparable to DRAM, while being non-volatile and much more dense. While emerging NVMs can be fabricated in different form factors, the most promising (from a performance perspective) are NVM-based DIMMs. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of studies that explore the design options for NVM-based DIMMs. Because of the read and write asymmetries in both power consumption and latency, as well as limited write endurance, which often requires wear-leveling techniques, NVMs require a specialized controller. The fact that future on-die memory controllers are expected to handle different memory technologies pushes future hardware towards on-DIMM controllers. In this paper, we propose an architectural model for NVM-based DIMMs with internal controllers, explore their design space, evaluate different optimizations and reach out to several architectural suggestions. Finally, we make our model publicly available and integrate it with a widely used architectural simulator.
Publication Date
10-2-2017
Publication Title
ACM International Conference Proceeding Series
Volume
Part F131197
Number of Pages
411-419
Document Type
Article; Proceedings Paper
Personal Identifier
scopus
DOI Link
https://doi.org/10.1145/3132402.3132422
Copyright Status
Unknown
Socpus ID
85033606351 (Scopus)
Source API URL
https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85033606351
STARS Citation
Awad, Amro; Hammond, Simon; Hughes, Clay; Rodrigues, Arun; and Hemmert, Scott, "Performance Analysis For Using Non-Volatile Memory Dimms: Opportunities And Challenges" (2017). Scopus Export 2015-2019. 7199.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/scopus2015/7199