Memory Systems

Course content

This course focusses on the main challenges for the design of modern semiconductor storage systems under the aspect of rapidly growing data storage requirements. Current, volatile and non-volatile memory types will be covered from the fundamental semiconductor technology level up to higher levels of system-level abstraction, with a focus on reliability and protection of stored data. Furthermore, Processing-in-Memory Architectures (PIM) based on conventional and 3D-stacked memories are analyzed, taking into account aspects such as low latency and energy consumption.

1. Introduction to Memory Systems (Review)
2. Overview on Memory Technology
   2.1 Volatile Memories: SRAM, DRAM
   2.2 Non-volatile Memories: ROM, Flash Memory, F-RAM, MRAM,...
3. Main Memory: Interfaces, Commands, and Controllers
4. Memory Cache
5. Processing-in-Memory (PIM) / New Data Processing
   5.1 Using traditional and 3D-Stacked memories
   5.2 Low-latency interfaces