Energy-aware design of embedded memories

Abstract

Embedded systems are often designed under stringent energy consumption budgets, to limit heat generation and battery size. Since memory systems consume a significant amount of energy to store and to forward data, it is then imperative to balance power consumption and performance in memory system design. Contemporary system design focuses on the trade-off between performance and energy consumption in processing and storage units, as well as in their interconnections. Although memory design is as important as processor design in achieving the desired design objectives, the former topic has received less attention than the latter in the literature. This article centers on one of the most outstanding problems in chip design for embedded applications. It guides the reader through different memory technologies and architectures, and it reviews the most successful strategies for optimizing them in the power/performance plane.