End to End System Design for DRAM-based TRNG


Research paper titled "DR-STRaNGe: End-to-End System Design for DRAM-based True Random Number Generators" is presented from researchers at TOBB University of Economics and Technology and ETH Zurich. Abstract "Random number generation is an important task in a wide variety of critical applications including cryptographic algorithms, scientific simulations, and industrial testing tools. True ... » read more

ETH Zurich: PIM (Processing In Memory) Architecture, UPMEM & PrIM Benchmarks


New paper technical titled "Benchmarking a New Paradigm: An Experimental Analysis of a Real Processing-in-Memory Architecture" led by researchers at ETH Zurich. Researchers provide a comprehensive analysis of the first publicly-available real-world PIM architecture, UPMEM, and introduce PrIM (Processing-In-Memory benchmarks), a benchmark suite of 16 workloads from different application domai... » read more

Chipmaking In The Third Dimension


Every few months, new and improved electronics are introduced. They’re typically smaller, smarter, faster, have more bandwidth, are more power-efficient, etc. — all thanks to a new generation of advanced chips and processors. Our digital society has come to expect this steady drip of new devices as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow. Behind the scenes, however, engineers are working feve... » read more

DRAM Thermal Issues Reach Crisis Point


Within the DRAM world, thermal issues are at a crisis point. At 14nm and below, and in the most advanced packaging schemes, an entirely new metric may be needed to address the multiplier effect of how thermal density increasingly turns minor issues into major problems. A few overheated transistors may not greatly affect reliability, but the heat generated from a few billion transistors does.... » read more

ETH Zurich Introduces ProTRR, in-DRAM Rowhammer Mitigation


New technical paper titled "PROTRR: Principled yet Optimal In-DRAM Target Row Refresh" from ETH Zurich. The paper was presented at the 43rd IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP 2022), San Francisco, CA, USA, May 22–26, 2022. This new paper introduces ProTRR, an "in-DRAM Rowhammer mitigation that is secure against FEINTING, a novel Rowhammer attack." The related video presentation can... » read more

The Changing Mask Landscape


Semiconductor photomasks have undergone some major technology changes in the past few years after relatively minor changes for many years. New technologies such as multi-beam mask writers and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography are major breakthroughs as they ramp into high-volume manufacturing. A new trend related to these technologies is the use of curvilinear features on photomasks. Aki... » read more

DRAM Choices Becoming Central Design Considerations


Chipmakers are paying much closer attention to various DRAM options as they grapple with what goes on-chip or into a package, elevating attached memory to a critical design element that can affect system performance, power, and cost. These are increasingly important issues to sort through with a number of tradeoffs, but the general consensus is that to reach the higher levels of performance ... » read more

A Case for Transparent Reliability in DRAM Systems


New technical paper from ETH Zurich and TU Delft. Abstract "Today's systems have diverse needs that are difficult to address using one-size-fits-all commodity DRAM. Unfortunately, although system designers can theoretically adapt commodity DRAM chips to meet their particular design goals (e.g., by reducing access timings to improve performance, implementing system-level RowHammer mitigati... » read more

Memory Bandwidth Regulation on Hybrid NVM/DRAM Platforms


New technical paper from Shanghai Jiao Tong University Abstract "Non-volatile memory (NVM) has emerged as a new memory media, resulting in a hybrid NVM/DRAM configuration in typical servers. Memory-intensive applications competing for the scant memory bandwidth can yield degraded performance. Identifying the noisy neighbors and regulating the memory bandwidth usage of them can alleviate th... » read more

CXL and OMI: Competing or Complementary?


System designers are looking at any ideas they can find to increase memory bandwidth and capacity, focusing on everything from improvements in memory to new types of memory. But higher-level architectural changes can help to fulfill both needs, even as memory types are abstracted away from CPUs. Two new protocols are helping to make this possible, CXL and OMI. But there is a looming question... » read more

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