Computational RAM: implementing processors in memory

Computational RAM is a processor-in-memory architecture that makes highly effective use of internal memory bandwidth by pitch-matching simple processing elements to memory columns. Computational RAM can function either as a conventional memory chip or as a SIMD (single-instruction stream, multiple-data stream) computer. When used as a memory, computational RAM is competitive with conventional DRAM in terms of access time, packaging and cost. Adding logic to memory is not a simple question of bolting together two existing designs. The paper considers how computational RAM integrates processing power with memory by using an architecture that preserves and exploits the features of memory