Cache coherence enabled adaptive refresh for volatile STT-RAM

Jianhua Li, Liang Shi, Qing'an Li, Chun Jason Xue, Yiran Chen, Yinlong Xu

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

Spin-Transfer Torque RAM (STT-RAM) is extensively studied in recent years. Recent work proposed to improve the write performance of STT-RAM through relaxing the retention time of STT-RAM cell, magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ). Unfortunately, frequent refresh operations of volatile STT-RAM could dissipate significantly extra energy. In addition, refresh operations can severely conflict with normal read/write operations and results in degraded cache performance. This paper proposes Cache Coherence Enabled Adaptive Refresh (CCear) to minimize refresh operations for volatile STT-RAM. Through novel modifications to cache coherence protocol, CCear can effectively minimize the number of refresh operations on volatile STT-RAM. Full-system simulation results show that CCear approaches the performance of the ideal refresh policy with negligible overhead.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - Design, Automation and Test in Europe, DATE 2013
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages1247-1250
Number of pages4
ISBN (Print)9783981537000
DOIs
StatePublished - 2013
Externally publishedYes
Event16th Design, Automation and Test in Europe Conference and Exhibition, DATE 2013 - Grenoble, France
Duration: 18 Mar 201322 Mar 2013

Publication series

NameProceedings -Design, Automation and Test in Europe, DATE
ISSN (Print)1530-1591

Conference

Conference16th Design, Automation and Test in Europe Conference and Exhibition, DATE 2013
Country/TerritoryFrance
CityGrenoble
Period18/03/1322/03/13

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Cache coherence enabled adaptive refresh for volatile STT-RAM'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this