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QuARK: quality-configurable approximate STT-MRAM cache by fine-grained tuning of reliability-energy knobs

Hosseini Monazzah, A. M ; Sharif University of Technology

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  1. Type of Document: Article
  2. DOI: 10.1109/ISLPED.2017.8009198
  3. Abstract:
  4. Emerging STT-MRAM memories are promising alternatives for SRAM memories to tackle their low density and high static power consumption, but impose high energy consumption for reliable read/write operations. However, absolute data integrity is not required for many approximate computing applications, allowing energy savings with minimal quality loss. This paper proposes QuARK, a hardware/software approach for trading reliability of STT-MRAM caches for energy savings in the on-chip memory hierarchy of multi- A nd many-core systems running approximate applications. In contrast to SRAM-based cache-way-level actuators, QuARK utilizes fine-grained cache-line-level actuation knobs with different levels of reliability for individual read and write accesses which are unique to STT-MRAM and suitable for systems running multiple applications with mixed accuracy sensitivity, thus avoiding interapplication actuation interference. Our experimental results with a set of recognition, mining and synthesis (RMS) benchmarks demonstrate up to 40% energy savings over a fully-protected STT-MRAM cache, with negligible loss in the quality of the generated outputs. © 2017 IEEE
  5. Keywords:
  6. Benchmarking ; Cache memory ; Elementary particles ; Energy conservation ; Energy utilization ; High energy physics ; Low power electronics ; Magnetic recording ; Reliability ; Static random access storage ; Computing applications ; Data integrity ; Fully protected ; Hardware/software ; High energy consumption ; Multiple applications ; Read/write operations ; Static power consumption ; MRAM devices
  7. Source: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Low Power Electronics and Design, 24 July 2017 through 26 July 2017 ; 2017 ; 15334678 (ISSN) ; 9781509060238 (ISBN)
  8. URL: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8009198