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Title: MRIMA: An MRAM-based In-Memory Accelerator
In this paper, we propose MRIMA, as a novel MRAM-based In-Memory Accelerator for non-volatile, flexible, and efficient in-memory computing. MRIMA transforms current Spin Transfer Torque Magnetic Random Access Memory (STT-MRAM) arrays to massively parallel computational units capable of working as both non-volatile memory and in-memory logic. Instead of integrating complex logic units in cost-sensitive memory, MRIMA exploits hardware-friendly bit-line computing methods to implement complete Boolean logic functions between operands within a memory array in a single clock cycle, overcoming the multi-cycle logic issue in contemporary Processing-In-Memory (PIM) platforms. We present practical case studies to demonstrate MRIMA’s acceleration for binary-weight and low bit-width Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) as well as data encryption. Our device-to-architecture co-simulation results on CNN acceleration demonstrate that MRIMA can obtain 1.7× better energy-efficiency and 11.2× speed-up compared to ASICs, and, 1.8× better energy-efficiency and 2.4× speed-up over the best DRAM-based PIM solutions. As an AES in-memory encryption engine, MRIMA shows 77% and 21% lower energy consumption compared to CMOS-ASIC and recent domain wall-based design, respectively.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1740126
NSF-PAR ID:
10094221
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems
ISSN:
0278-0070
Page Range / eLocation ID:
1 to 1
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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