ARC: DVFS-Aware Asymmetric-Retention STT-RAM Caches for Energy-Efficient Multicore Processors

Abstract: Relaxed retention (or volatile) spin-transfer torque RAM (STT-RAM) has been widely studied as a way to reduce STT-RAM's write energy and latency overheads. Given a relaxed retention time STT-RAM level one (L1) cache, we analyze the impacts of dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) -- a common optimization in modern processors -- on STT-RAM L1 cache design. Our analysis reveals that, apart from the fact that different applications may require different retention times, the clock frequency, which is typically ignored in most STT-RAM studies, may also significantly impact applications' retention time needs. Based on our findings, we propose an asymmetric-retention core (ARC) design for multicore architectures. ARC features retention time heterogeneity to specialize STT-RAM retention times to applications' needs. We also propose a runtime prediction model to determine the best core on which to run an application, based on the applications' characteristics, their retention time requirements, and available DVFS settings. Results reveal that the proposed approach can reduce the average cache energy by 20.19% and overall processor energy by 7.66%, compared to a homogeneous STT-RAM cache design.