Exploration of Magnetic RAM Based Memory Hierarchy for Multicore Architecture

Today's memory systems mainly integrate SRAM, DRAM and FLASH technologies. SRAM and DRAM are generally used for cache and working memory, while FLASH memory is used for non-volatile storage at low speed. But all are facing to manufacturing constraints in the most advanced node, which compromises further evolution. Besides, with the increasing size of the memory system, a significant portion of the total system power is spent into memories. Magnetic RAM (MRAM) technology is a very attractive alternative offering simultaneously reasonable performance and power consumption efficiency, high density and non-volatility. While MRAM is always under severe investigation to improve manufacturing process, the state of the art shows that this memory technology can be accessed in less than 5ns with a read/write dynamic energy not so far to SRAM dynamic energy. Besides, non-volatility of MRAM can be used for optimizing leakage current thanks to instant on/off policies. This paper demonstrates how current characteristics of MRAM can be used into memory hierarchy of multiprocessor chips (CMPs). The goal is to highlight the interest to use MRAM for cache memory in order to keep overall application performance saving static power.