Experimental Characterization Results and State-of-the-Art Device-Level Studies of DRAM Read Disturbance

A new technical paper titled “Revisiting DRAM Read Disturbance: Identifying Inconsistencies Between Experimental Characterization and Device-Level Studies” was published by researchers at ETH Zurich.

Abstract
“Modern DRAM is vulnerable to read disturbance (e.g., RowHammer and RowPress) that significantly undermines the robust operation of the system. Repeatedly opening and closing a DRAM row (RowHammer) or keeping a DRAM row open for a long period of time (RowPress) induces bitflips in nearby unaccessed DRAM rows. Prior works on DRAM read disturbance either 1) perform experimental characterization using commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) DRAM chips to demonstrate the high-level characteristics of the read disturbance bitflips, or 2) perform device-level simulations to understand the low-level error mechanisms of the read disturbance bitflips.
In this paper, we attempt to align and cross-validate the real-chip experimental characterization results and state-of-the-art device-level studies of DRAM read disturbance. To do so, we first identify and extract the key bitflip characteristics of RowHammer and RowPress from the device-level error mechanisms studied in prior works. Then, we perform experimental characterization on 96 COTS DDR4 DRAM chips that directly match the data and access patterns studied in the device-level works. Through our experiments, we identify fundamental inconsistencies in the RowHammer and RowPress bitflip directions and access pattern dependence between experimental characterization results and the device-level error mechanisms.

Based on our results, we hypothesize that either 1) the retention failure based DRAM architecture reverse-engineering methodologies do not fully work on modern DDR4 DRAM chips, or 2) existing device-level works do not fully uncover all the major read disturbance error mechanisms. We hope our findings inspire and enable future works to build a more fundamental and comprehensive understanding of DRAM read disturbance.”

Find the technical paper here. March 2025

arXiv:2503.16749v1
Authors: Haocong Luo, İsmail Emir Yüksel, Ataberk Olgun, A. Giray Yağlıkçı, Onur Mutlu