In-DRAM Cache Management for Low Latency and Low Power 3D-Stacked DRAMs

Abstract

Recently, 3D-stacked dynamic random access memory (DRAM) has become a promising solution for ultra-high capacity and high-bandwidth memory implementations. However, it also suffers from memory wall problems due to long latency, such as with typical 2D-DRAMs. Although there are various cache management techniques and latency hiding schemes to reduce DRAM access time, in a high-performance system using high-capacity 3D-stacked DRAM, it is ultimately essential to reduce the latency of the DRAM itself. To solve this problem, various asymmetric in-DRAM cache structures have recently been proposed, which are more attractive for high-capacity DRAMs because they can be implemented at a lower cost in 3D-stacked DRAMs. However, most research mainly focuses on the architecture of the in-DRAM cache itself and does not pay much attention to proper management methods. In this paper, we propose two new management algorithms for the in-DRAM caches to achieve a low-latency and low-power 3D-stacked DRAM device. Through the computing system simulation, we demonstrate the improvement of energy delay product up to 67%.