Compressed NVRAM based Memory Systems

In this paper we examine a 2-level memory system that uses emerging nonvolatile RAM (NVRAM) technologies to build a main memory system with DRAM acting like a cache. We discuss the architectural aspects of such a structure including power-performance tradeoff and how compressed NVRAM storage can help. The analysis indicates that the power benefits of using emerging NVRAM technologies can be very substantial; however, latency sensitive workloads can suffer significant performance impact compared with same sized DRAM only memory. The analysis also shows that compression can provide significant benefits in terms of reducing the NVRAM read/write bandwidth and either enhancing the NVRAM life or reducing the size of NVRAM required.