Rapidly evolving workloads and exploding data volumes place great pressure on data-center compute, IO, and memory performance, and especially on memory capacity. Increasing memory capacity requires a commensurate reduction in memory cost per bit. DRAM technology scaling has been steadily delivering affordable capacity increases, but DRAM scaling is rapidly reaching physical limits. Other technologies such as Flash, enhanced Flash, Phase Change Memory, and Spin Torque Transfer Magnetic RAM hold promise for creating high capacity memories at lower cost per bit. However, these technologies have attributes that require careful management.
Emerging Solutions
Do Superconducting Processors Really Need Cryogenic Memories? The Case for Cold DRAM
Cryogenic, superconducting digital processors offer the promise of greatly reduced operating power for server-class computing systems. This is due to the exceptionally low energy per operation of Single Flux Quantum circuits built from Josephson junction devices operating at the temperature of 4 Kelvin. Unfortunately, no suitable same-temperature memory technology yet exists to complement these SFQ logic technologies. Possible memory technologies are in the early stages of development but will take years to reach the cost per bit and capacity capabilities of current semiconductor memory. We discuss the pros and cons of four alternative memory architectures that could be coupled to SFQ-based processors. Our feasibility studies indicate that cold memories built from CMOS DRAM and operating at 77K can support superconducting processors at low cost-per-bit, and that they can do so today.
Lensless Smart Sensor for Room Occupancy
Ensuring Privacy in Next Generation Room Occupancy Sensing
Lensless Smart Sensor POD 2.0 Evaluation Kit
Rambus Smart Data Acceleration Whitepaper
As an industry, if real progress is to be made towards the level of computing that the future mandates, then the way computing problems are attacked must change. The von Neumann execution model has and will continue to serve us well, but additional techniques must be brought to bear.
The next logical focus area is data—how it is accessed, and how it is transformed into real information—that leads to newer solutions. No longer can all of memory simply continue to be an element that holds the program commands and data during execution. Memory must become an active part of the solution, rather than a necessary evil.
The first step in what is likely to be a protracted journey is to provide a vehicle that allows it to be exploited independently of the CPU. Rambus is doing just that through the creation of their Smart Data Acceleration (SDA) Research Program.