Breaking through the embedded memory bottleneck, part 1

Parallel architecture performance boosts
Algorithmic memories introduce architectural improvements by adding logic to existing embedded memory macros that enables the memories to operate much more efficiently. Within the memories, algorithms intelligently read, write, and manage data in parallel using a variety of techniques such as buffering, virtualization, pipelining, and data encoding. Woven together, these techniques create a new memory that internally processes memory operations an order of magnitude faster and with guaranteed performance. This increased performance capability is made available to the system through additional memory ports such that many more memory access requests can be processed in parallel within a single clock cycle (see figure 2). The concept of using multi-port memories as a means of multiplying memory performance mirrors the trend of using multicore processors to increase performance over uniprocessors. In both cases, it is parallel architecture rather than faster clock speeds that drives performance gains.





Algorithmic memory technology is implemented as a soft RTL. The resulting solutions appear exactly as standard multi-port embedded memories. A system architect can specify the level of memory performance that is required from a customized algorithmic memory. As will be described later, an algorithmic memory can also significantly lower layout area and reduce memory power in certain instances. Using this approach requires no change to existing memory interfaces or ASIC design flows. Algorithmic memory technology is both process node and foundry independent. In essence, the approach opens the door to allow system architects to rapidly and reliably create customized memory solutions that can be optimized for specific applications. The extra area overhead required to implement a 2X MOPS increase is typically around 15% of the total physical memory area, for example. In one implementation of a networking SoC, the performance of a 32Mb (128K deep x 256 bits wide) ultra‐high-density SRAM running at 500 MHz (500 million MOPS) in 32-nm process-, was increased to 1000 million MOPS with 13% area overhead.

Insofar as one is prepared to tradeoff some area, memories can be made significantly faster and up to 10X increase in performance is possible. In practice, the majority of applications benefit from up to 4X in memory performance. In some cases, algorithmic memory technology can also be used to lower memory area and power consumption without sacrificing performance.

Developing higher performance memory using circuits alone imposes a significant area and power penalty. Algorithmic memory technology combines a lower performance memory circuit (which typically has lower area and power requirements) with memory algorithms to synthesize a new memory. This algorithmic memory achieves the same MOPS as a high performance memory built using circuits alone, but can lower area and power up to 50%.

In part 2 of this article, we’ll take a closer look at the specifics of how algorithmic memories work and how the techniques can be integrated into a system.

About the author:
Sundar Iyer is co-founder and CTO at Memoir Systems, a start-up specializing in semiconductor intellectual property (SIP) for algorithmic memories. Previously, Iyer was CTO and co-founder of Nemo (“Network Memory”) Systems, acquired by Cisco Systems in ’05. Iyer was a founding member at SwitchOn Networks (acquired by PMC-Sierra in ‘00), where he developed algorithms for associative memory and deep packet classification. In 2008, Iyer was awarded the MIT technology review (TR35) young innovator award for his work on network memory. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University in 2008.
Sundar can be reached at sundaes@memoir-systems.com.


Did you find this article of interest? Then visit the Memory Designline, where we update daily with design, technology, product, and news articles tailored to fit your world. Too busy to go every day? Sign up for our newsletter to get the week's best items delivered to your inbox. Just click here and choose the "Manage Newsletters" tab.