Applications of Emerging Non-volatile Memory Technologies in Next-generation Storage and Computing Systems

The goal of this seminar is to give an overview of working mechanisms of several emerging nonvolatile memory technologies, i.e., spintronic memory, phase change memory, resistive memory, and ferroelectric memory, etc., and their applications in next-generation storage and computing systems. The presenter will first introduce electrical properties of these memory technologies that make them unique from the mainstream memory technologies. Next, the presenter will discuss some typical circuit designs targeting the concerned applications, i.e., TCAM, on-chip cache, standalone memory, and storage class memory. The presenter will then illustrate the new requirements of next-generation storage and computing systems and their solutions by leveraging the unique properties of emerging memory technologies, such as fast access time, nonvolatility, high integration density, and good CMOS process compatibility. At the end of this talk, the presenter will list some common circuit design challenges of these emerging memory technologies, e.g., high write cost, asymmetric programming performance at 1 and 0, and the approaches that can alleviate these challenges at circuit design and computer architecture levels.