Energy-Efficient Hybrid DRAM/NVM Main Memory

Abstract

DRAM consumes significant static energy both in active and idle state due to continuous leakage and refresh power. Various byte-addressable non-volatile memory (NVM) technologies promise near-zero static energy and persistence, however they suffer from increased latency and increased dynamic energy than DRAM. A hybrid main memory, containing both DRAM and NVM components, can provide both low energy and high performance although such organizations require that data is placed in the appropriate component. We propose a user-level software management methodology for a hybrid DRAM/NVM main memory system with an aim to reduce energy.