An intelligent memory for data -parallel applications

Major advances in Merged Logic DRAM (MLD) technology coupled with the popularization of memory-intensive applications provide fertile ground for architectures based on Intelligent Memory (IRAM). The contribution of this research is to explore one way to use the current state-of-the-art MLD technology for general-purpose computers. A novel IRAM architecture named FlexRAM is proposed here. To satisfy requirements of general-purpose and low programming cost, we embed the FlexRAM chips in the memory system and let them default to plain DRAM if the application is not enabled for intelligent memory. Inside a FlexRAM chip we build two level of processors. These embedded processors in FlexRAM can perform parallel processing in addition to having advantage of less memory access latency and high memory bandwidth.;Many research issues related to FlexRAM are discussed. We describe the FlexRAM architecture include memory architecture, processor architecture and communication models. The rationales for our architecture design are based on general principles and constraints from the technology and existing computer systems. We address design issues arising from the FlexRAM logical and physical design. We show that it is feasible to implement a FlexRAM chip under current MLD technology by setting up HDL models for a FlexRAM chip and estimating its physical parameters. Evaluations based on high-level simulation are made. Decent speedup numbers are shown that FlexRAM architecture is effective for many data-parallel applications. How to program FlexRAM is also explored and a new programming model for IRAM---Intelligent Memory Operation is suggested. We identify and analyze a range of real applications for FlexRAM, including applications in the domain of data mining, computational biology, decision support and multimedia.