Optimization of Application-Specific Memories

Author

Wingbermuehle, Joseph G. ; Cytron, Ron K. ; Chamberlain, Roger D.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Comput. Sci. & Eng., Washington Univ., St. Louis, MO, USA

Volume

13

Issue

1

fYear

2014

fDate

Jan.-June 15 2014

Firstpage

45

Lastpage

48

Abstract

Memory access times are the primary bottleneck for many applications today. This “memory wall” is due to the performance disparity between processor cores and main memory. To address the performance gap, we propose the use of custom memory subsystems tailored to the application rather than attempting to optimize the application for a fixed memory subsystem. Custom subsystems can take advantage of application-specific properties as well as memory-specific properties to improve access times or write-backs given constraints on size or power.

Keywords

cache storage; access time improvement; application-specific memory optimization; cache; custom memory subsystems; fixed memory subsystem; memory access times; memory wall; memory-specific properties; performance disparity; performance gap; processor cores; write-backs given constraints; Computer architecture; Hardware; Memory management; Multiprocessing systems; Performance evaluation; B Hardware; B.3 Memory Structures; B.3.2 Design Styles; B.3.3 Performance Analysis and Design Aids; B.3.3.b Simulation; C Computer Systems Organization; C.1 Processor Architectures; C.1.5 Micro-architecture implementation considerations; C.1.5.e Memory hierarchy;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Computer Architecture Letters

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1556-6056

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/L-CA.2013.7

Filename

6506839