SHF: Small: Collaborative Research: Exploring Nonvolatility of Emerging Memory Technologies for Architecture Design

在现代计算机中，通过结合传统高速缓存技术的速度、传统主存储器技术的密度和闪存的非易失性，新兴的一类字节可寻址非易失性存储器（NVM）具有作为未来通用存储器的巨大潜力。这样的存储器类型包括诸如相变存储器、自旋转移矩磁阻存储器和电阻存储器的技术。随着这些新兴的存储器技术的成熟，重要的是计算机架构师要全面地了解它们的优点和缺点，以提高未来计算机系统的性能，功率和可靠性，这些系统将用于各种应用领域。然而，大多数以前的研究对NVM架构只集中在性能，功率和密度的好处，以及如何克服的挑战，如写开销和磨损问题。NVM技术的非易失性特性没有被充分探索。因此，本研究计划将探讨如何利用新兴的非挥发性记忆体技术有别于传统记忆体技术的非挥发性特性，并研究新的记忆体架构设计与新的应用，本研究计划的目的是透过全面探讨非挥发性记忆体技术的非挥发性特性，和应用水平。为此，该项目探讨了各种类型的计算机系统的设计空间，从服务器到嵌入式系统。 特别是，该项目确定和解决非易失性高速缓存架构的设计问题，重新架构主存储器结构，以利用非易失性特性来改善系统性能和能耗，支持持久性存储器系统在各种用例中与新兴的NVM技术，并研究应用于这些NVM技术的近数据计算技术。这项研究的成功成果有望为实现大容量和快速带宽的非易失性存储器/存储提供设计指导，这超出了目前的最先进水平。因此，这项研究将产生涉及数据的exascale计算的新应用，例如，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

In modern computers, by combining the speed of traditional cache technology, the density of traditional main memory technology, and the non-volatility of flash memory, a new class of emerging byte-addressable nonvolatile memories (NVMs) have great potential to be used as the universal memories of the future. Such memory types include technologies such as phase-change memory, spin-transfer-torque magnetoresistive memory, and resistive memory. As these emerging memory technologies mature, it is important for computer architects to understand their pros and cons in a comprehensive manner in order to improve the performance, power, and reliability of future computer systems incorporating these systems which will be used in various application domains. Yet, most of previous research on NVM architecture is focused only on the performance, power, and density benefits and how to overcome challenges, such as write overhead and wearout issues. The non-volatility characteristic of NVM technologies is not fully explored. Therefore, this project examines how to exploit the non-volatility characteristic that distinguishes the emerging NVM technologies from traditional memory technologies, and investigate new memory architecture design with novel applications.The goal of this project is to advance the memory architecture design of various types of computer systems with a full exploration of the non-volatility characteristic of NVM technologies across architecture, system, and application levels. To this end, the project explores the design space of various types of computer systems, ranging from severs to embedded systems. In particular, the project identifies and addresses design issues in nonvolatile cache architecture, re-architects main memory structure to leverage the non-volatility characteristic to improve system performance and energy consumption, supports persistent memory systems in various use cases with emerging NVM technologies, and studies near-data-computing techniques applied for these NVM technologies. The successful outcome of this research is expected to provide the design guidelines for enabling both large capacity and fast-bandwidth nonvolatile memory/storage, which are beyond the present state-of-the-art. Consequently, the research will spawn new applications involving the computation on the exascale of data, e.g., data mining, machine learning, visual or auditory sensory data recognition, bio-informatics, etc.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.