Publications Details

Evaluating the Opportunities for Multi-Level Memory - An ASC 2016 L2 Milestone

Voskuilen, Gwendolyn R.; Frank, Michael P.; Hammond, Simon D.; Rodrigues, Arun

As new memory technologies appear on the market, there is a growing push to incorporate them into future architectures. Compared to traditional DDR DRAM, these technologies provide appealing advantages such as increased bandwidth or non-volatility. However, the technologies have significant downsides as well including higher cost, manufacturing complexity, and for non-volatile memories, higher latency and wear-out limitations. As such, no technology has emerged as a clear technological and economic winner. As a result, systems are turning to the concept of multi-level memory, or mixing multiple memory technologies in a single system to balance cost, performance, and reliability.