Exploring Design Space of 3D NVM and eDRAM Caches Using DESTINY Tool

To enable the design of large sized caches, novel memory technologies (such as non-volatile memory) and novel fabrication approaches (e.g. 3D stacking) have been explored. The existing modeling tools, however, cover only few memory technologies, CMOS technology nodes and fabrication approaches. We present DESTINY, a tool for modeling 3D (and 2D) cache designs using SRAM, embedded DRAM (eDRAM), spin transfer torque RAM (STT-RAM), resistive RAM (ReRAM) and phase change RAM (PCM). DESTINY is very useful for performing design-space exploration across several dimensions, such as optimizing for a target (e.g. latency, area or energy-delay product) for a given memory technology, choosing the suitable memory technology or fabrication method (i.e. 2D v/s 3D) for a given optimization target etc. DESTINY has been validated against several cache prototypes. We believe that DESTINY will boost studies of next-generation memory architectures used in systems ranging from mobile devices to extreme-scale supercomputers. Keywords—Cache, SRAM, eDRAM, non-volatile memory (NVM or NVRAM), STT-RAM, ReRAM, PCM, modeling tool, emerging memory technologies, validation.