scholarly journals Microarchitectural Exploration of STT-MRAM Last-level Cache Parameters for Energy-efficient Devices

2022 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Tommaso Marinelli ◽  
Jignacio Gómez Pérez ◽  
Christian Tenllado ◽  
Manu Komalan ◽  
Mohit Gupta ◽  
...  

As the technology scaling advances, limitations of traditional memories in terms of density and energy become more evident. Modern caches occupy a large part of a CPU physical size and high static leakage poses a limit to the overall efficiency of the systems, including IoT/edge devices. Several alternatives to CMOS SRAM memories have been studied during the past few decades, some of which already represent a viable replacement for different levels of the cache hierarchy. One of the most promising technologies is the spin-transfer torque magnetic RAM (STT-MRAM), due to its small basic cell design, almost absent static current and non-volatility as an added value. However, nothing comes for free, and designers will have to deal with other limitations, such as the higher latencies and dynamic energy consumption for write operations compared to reads. The goal of this work is to explore several microarchitectural parameters that may overcome some of those drawbacks when using STT-MRAM as last-level cache (LLC) in embedded devices. Such parameters include: number of cache banks, number of miss status handling registers (MSHRs) and write buffer entries, presence of hardware prefetchers. We show that an effective tuning of those parameters may virtually remove any performance loss while saving more than 60% of the LLC energy on average. The analysis is then extended comparing the energy results from calibrated technology models with data obtained with freely available tools, highlighting the importance of using accurate models for architectural exploration.

Author(s):  
T. Kimura

This chapter discusses the spin-transfer effect, which is described as the transfer of the spin angular momentum between the conduction electrons and the magnetization of the ferromagnet that occurs due to the conservation of the spin angular momentum. L. Berger, who introduced the concept in 1984, considered the exchange interaction between the conduction electron and the localized magnetic moment, and predicted that a magnetic domain wall can be moved by flowing the spin current. The spin-transfer effect was brought into the limelight by the progress in microfabrication techniques and the discovery of the giant magnetoresistance effect in magnetic multilayers. Berger, at the same time, separately studied the spin-transfer torque in a system similar to Slonczewski’s magnetic multilayered system and predicted spontaneous magnetization precession.


Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1229
Author(s):  
Andrii Vovk ◽  
Sergey A. Bunyaev ◽  
Pavel Štrichovanec ◽  
Nikolay R. Vovk ◽  
Bogdan Postolnyi ◽  
...  

Thin polycrystalline Co2FeGe films with composition close to stoichiometry have been fabricated using magnetron co-sputtering technique. Effects of substrate temperature (TS) and post-deposition annealing (Ta) on structure, static and dynamic magnetic properties were systematically studied. It is shown that elevated TS (Ta) promote formation of ordered L21 crystal structure. Variation of TS (Ta) allow modification of magnetic properties in a broad range. Saturation magnetization ~920 emu/cm3 and low magnetization damping parameter α ~ 0.004 were achieved for TS = 573 K. This in combination with soft ferromagnetic properties (coercivity below 6 Oe) makes the films attractive candidates for spin-transfer torque and magnonic devices.


SPIN ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 07 (03) ◽  
pp. 1740014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cormac Ó Coileáin ◽  
Han Chun Wu

From historical obscurity, antiferromagnets are recently enjoying revived interest, as antiferromagnetic (AFM) materials may allow the continued reduction in size of spintronic devices. They have the benefit of being insensitive to parasitic external magnetic fields, while displaying high read/write speeds, and thus poised to become an integral part of the next generation of logical devices and memory. They are currently employed to preserve the magnetoresistive qualities of some ferromagnetic based giant or tunnel magnetoresistance systems. However, the question remains how the magnetic states of an antiferromagnet can be efficiently manipulated and detected. Here, we reflect on AFM materials for their use in spintronics, in particular, newly recognized antiferromagnet Mn2Au with its in-plane anisotropy and tetragonal structure and high Néel temperature. These attributes make it one of the most promising candidates for AFM spintronics thus far with the possibility of architectures freed from the need for ferromagnetic (FM) elements. Here, we discuss its potential for use in ferromagnet-free spintronic devices.


2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (25) ◽  
pp. 252407
Author(s):  
Kyuhwe Kang ◽  
Won-Bin Lee ◽  
Dong-Kyu Lee ◽  
Kyung-Jin Lee ◽  
Gyung-Min Choi

2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hao Cai ◽  
Bo Liu ◽  
Juntong Chen ◽  
Lirida Naviner ◽  
Yongliang Zhou ◽  
...  

2015 ◽  
Vol 51 (11) ◽  
pp. 1-4 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. D. Costa ◽  
S. Serrano-Guisan ◽  
J. Borme ◽  
F. L. Deepak ◽  
M. Tarequzzaman ◽  
...  

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