UU | IT | DoCS | eh

 

TIC -- Lecture2:Memory Technology


1. Who are you?

2. Check the TRUE statements for the P0 paper
1 Page mode means that data is held in the sense amps allowing multiple columns to be read in rapid succession
2 Extended Data Out DRAM does not support page mode
3 Both Synchronous Link DRAM and Rambus DRAMs use a split request/response protocol
4 Rambus DRAM is an open standard
5 Direct Rambus DRAMs are divided into 16 banks each with its own row buffer
6 Contemporary DRAM architectures are all striving to decrease the memory latency
7 Since bus transmission time accounts for up to 50% of the total latency for the simulated configurations bus speed is predicted to become a critical issue
8 Moving to wider buses will make the row access component of the memory access time more significant
3. Which (if any) of the following statements are true for paper P1
1 DRAM density of 512Mb means that there is 512Mb of memory per square centimeter of chip area
2 DRAM density is expected to increase by a factor of four during the years 2005-2010
3 It is too complex to make a memory where each cell stores more than one bit to even consider such a construction
4 The density of NAND based flash memory is increasing more than the density of DRAM
5 DRAM is roughly two magnitudes slower than the CPU today
4. In the paper P2 a RAM array is divided into macros which are divided into blocks. Which (if any) of the following statements are true?
1 Each macro needs separate decoders
2 Blocks share sense amplifiers
3 When a RAM array is divided into macros and blocks the access time decreases only until a certain point after which further sub-dividing will increase access time
4 Delay is sometimes measured in Tfo4 (where T is the Greek letter Tau) and fo4 means faculty of four
5 Access time decreases with decreased wire width
6 Redundant rows in the array are inserted in order to decrease the access time
5. Check the TRUE statements for the EXTRA paper
1 MRAM cells can be manufactured with higher density than DRAM cells
2 MRAMS do not consume any static power
3 A drawback with mixing logic and MRAM on the same die is that the fabrication technology cannot be fine-tuned for either logic or RAM -- it is a trade-off
4 Information is stored in an MRAM cell by changing polarization of a magnetic layer
5 The expected size of on-die MRAM is in the hundreds of megabytes range
6 There is a power/performance trade-off in the architecture evaluated in the paper due to the fact that MRAM writes consume more power than reads
7 Multilayer MRAM implementation increases capacity without increasing overhead in the logic layer but may be difficult to manufacture
6 . Questions about the EXTRA paper
1 What are the main advantages of MRAM?

2 What is chipstacking?

7 . Rate paper P0
1 Was it easy to read the paper?
2 Is the paper technically sound (for the time it was written)?
3 How do you rate the overall presentation?
4 Any short suggestions for improvements?

8 . Submit at least two issues to discuss at the meeting
1 Issue 1

2 Issue 2

3 Issue 3

4 Issue 4

Please, print a copy of your form and bring it to the next meeting


<eh@it.uu.se>