An optimal DRAM sizing and partitioning method for NVRAM based hybrid memory architecture

Abstract

We propose an optimal method for sizing and partitioning DRAM in the NVRAM based hybrid memory for a multicore system. Optimizing the size of DRAM in the hybrid memory is critical to capture the working sets of applications for performance improvement and reduce hardware cost. Given the QoS requirements of applications and architectural constraints, the proposed method can minimize the total DRAM size by determining optimal partitions using integer linear programming. It can be used to statically size the DRAM during a system design phase or dynamically partition the DRAM among applications under various runtime scenarios.