Phase Change Memory: From Devices to Systems (Synthesis Lectures on Computer Architecture)

As conventional memory technologies such as DRAM and Flash run into scaling challenges, architects and system designers are forced to look at alternative technologies for building future computer systems. This synthesis lecture begins by listing the requirements for a next generation memory technology and briefly surveys the landscape of novel non-volatile memories. Among these, Phase Change Memory (PCM) is emerging as a leading contender, and the authors discuss the material, device, and circuit advances underlying this exciting technology. The lecture then describes architectural solutions to enable PCM for main memories. Finally, the authors explore the impact of such byte-addressable non-volatile memories on future storage and system designs. Table of Contents: Next Generation Memory Technologies / Architecting PCM for Main Memories / Tolerating Slow Writes in PCM / Wear Leveling for Durability / Wear Leveling Under Adversarial Settings / Error Resilience in Phase Change Memories /Storage and System Design With Emerging Non-Volatile Memories

Dr. Moinuddin Qureshi is an Associate Professor at Georgia Institute of Technology. His research interest includes computer architecture,memory system design,and leveraging emerging technology for scalable and efficient systems. He was a Research Staff Member at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center from 2007 to 2011, where he contributed to caching algorithms of Power 7 processor and conducted research studies on emerging non-volatile memory technologies. He received his Ph.D. (2007) and M.S. (2003) from the University of Texas at Austin, and BE (2000) from Mumbai University. He has published more than a dozen papers in flagship architecture conferences and holds five US patents.