Evaluation of STT-MRAM main memory for HPC and real-time systems

It is questionable whether DRAM will continue to scale and will meet the needs of next-generation systems. Therefore, significant effort is invested in research and development of novel memory technologies. One of the candidates for nextgeneration memory is Spin-Transfer Torque Magnetic Random Access Memory (STT-MRAM). STT-MRAM is an emerging non-volatile memory with a lot of potential that could be exploited for various requirements of different computing systems. Being a novel technology, STT-MRAM devices are already approaching DRAM in terms of capacity, frequency and device size. Special STT-MRAM features such as intrinsic radiation hardness, non-volatility, zero stand-by power and capability to function in extreme temperatures also make it particularly suitable for aerospace, avionics and automotive applications. Despite of being a conceivable alternative for main memory technology, to this day, academic research of STT-MRAM main memory remains marginal. This is mainly due to the unavailability of publicly available detailed timing parameters of this novel technology, which are required to perform a cycle accurate main memory simulation. Some researchers adopt simplistic memory models to simulate main memory, but such models can introduce significant errors in the analysis of the overall system performance. Therefore, detailed timing parameters are a must-have for any evaluation or architecture exploration study of STT-MRAM main memory. These detailed parameters are not publicly available because STT-MRAM manufacturers are reluctant to release any delicate information on the technology. This thesis demonstrates an approach to perform a cycle accurate simulation of STT-MRAM main memory, being the first to release detailed timing parameters of this technology from academia, essentially enabling researchers to conduct reliable system level simulation of STT-MRAM using widely accepted existing simulation infrastructure. Our results show that, in HPC domain STT-MRAM provide performance comparable to DRAM. Results from the power estimation indicates that STT-MRAM power consumption increases significantly for Activation/Precharge power while Burst power increases moderately and Background power does not deviate much from DRAM. The thesis includes detailed STT-MRAM main memory timing parameters to the main repositories of DramSim2 and Ramulator, two of the most widely used and accepted state-of-the-art main memory simulators. The STT-MRAM timing parameters that has been originated as a part of this thesis, are till date the only reliable and publicly available timing information on this memory technology published from academia. Finally, the thesis analyzes the feasibility of using STT-MRAM in real-time embedded systems by investigating STT-MRAM main memory impact on average system performance and WCET. STT-MRAM's suitability for the real-time embedded systems is validated on benchmarks provided by the European Space Agency (ESA), EEMBC Autobench and MediaBench suite by analyzing performance and WCET impact. In quantitative terms, our results show that STT-MRAM main memory in real-time embedded systems provides performance and WCET comparable to conventional DRAM, while opening up opportunities to exploit various advantages.Es cuestionable si DRAM continuará escalando y cumplirá con las necesidades de los sistemas de la próxima generación. Por lo tanto, se invierte un esfuerzo significativo en la investigación y el desarrollo de nuevas tecnologías de memoria. Uno de los candidatos para la memoria de próxima generación es la Spin-Transfer Torque Magnetic Random Access Memory (STT-MRAM). STT-MRAM es una memoria no volátil emergente con un gran potencial que podría ser explotada para diversos requisitos de diferentes sistemas informáticos. Al ser una tecnología novedosa, los dispositivos STT-MRAM ya se están acercando a la DRAM en términos de capacidad, frecuencia y tamaño del dispositivo. Las características especiales de STTMRAM, como la dureza intrínseca a la radiación, la no volatilidad, la potencia de reserva cero y la capacidad de funcionar en temperaturas extremas, también lo hacen especialmente adecuado para aplicaciones aeroespaciales, de aviónica y automotriz. A pesar de ser una alternativa concebible para la tecnología de memoria principal, hasta la fecha, la investigación académica de la memoria principal de STT-MRAM sigue siendo marginal. Esto se debe principalmente a la falta de disponibilidad de los parámetros de tiempo detallados públicamente disponibles de esta nueva tecnología, que se requieren para realizar un ciclo de simulación de memoria principal precisa. Algunos investigadores adoptan modelos de memoria simplistas para simular la memoria principal, pero tales modelos pueden introducir errores significativos en el análisis del rendimiento general del sistema. Por lo tanto, los parámetros de tiempo detallados son indispensables para cualquier evaluación o estudio de exploración de la arquitectura de la memoria principal de STT-MRAM. Estos parámetros detallados no están disponibles públicamente porque los fabricantes de STT-MRAM son reacios a divulgar información delicada sobre la tecnología. Esta tesis demuestra un enfoque para realizar un ciclo de simulación precisa de la memoria principal de STT-MRAM, siendo el primero en lanzar parámetros de tiempo detallados de esta tecnología desde la academia, lo que esencialmente permite a los investigadores realizar una simulación confiable a nivel de sistema de STT-MRAM utilizando una simulación existente ampliamente aceptada infraestructura. Nuestros resultados muestran que, en el dominio HPC, STT-MRAM proporciona un rendimiento comparable al de la DRAM. Los resultados de la estimación de potencia indican que el consumo de potencia de STT-MRAM aumenta significativamente para la activation/Precharge power, mientras que la Burst power aumenta moderadamente y la Background power no se desvía mucho de la DRAM. La tesis incluye parámetros detallados de temporización memoria principal de STT-MRAM a los repositorios principales de DramSim2 y Ramulator, dos de los simuladores de memoria principal más avanzados y más utilizados y aceptados. Los parámetros de tiempo de STT-MRAM que se han originado como parte de esta tesis, son hasta la fecha la única información de tiempo confiable y disponible al público sobre esta tecnología de memoria publicada desde la academia. Finalmente, la tesis analiza la viabilidad de usar STT-MRAM en real-time embedded systems mediante la investigación del impacto de la memoria principal de STT-MRAM en el rendimiento promedio del sistema y WCET. La idoneidad de STTMRAM para los real-time embedded systems se valida en los applicaciones proporcionados por la European Space Agency (ESA), EEMBC Autobench y MediaBench, al analizar el rendimiento y el impacto de WCET. En términos cuantitativos, nuestros resultados muestran que la memoria principal de STT-MRAM en real-time embedded systems proporciona un desempeño WCET comparable al de una memoria DRAM convencional, al tiempo que abre oportunidades para explotar varias ventajas

Architecting Memory Systems for Emerging Technologies

The advance of traditional dynamic random access memory (DRAM) technology has slowed down, while the capacity and performance needs of memory system have continued to increase. This is a result of increasing data volume from emerging applications, such as machine learning and big data analytics. In addition to such demands, increasing energy consumption is becoming a major constraint on the capabilities of computer systems. As a result, emerging non-volatile memories, for example, Spin Torque Transfer Magnetic RAM (STT-MRAM), and new memory interfaces, for example, High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), have been developed as an alternative. Thus far, most previous studies have retained a DRAM-like memory architecture and management policy. This preserves compatibility but hides the true benefits of those new memory technologies. In this research, we proposed the co-design of memory architectures and their management policies for emerging technologies. First, we introduced a new memory architecture for an STT-MRAM main memory. In particular, we defined a new page mode operation for efficient activation and sensing. By fully exploiting the non-destructive nature of STT- MRAM, our design achieved higher performance, lower energy consumption, and a smaller area than the traditional designs. Second, we developed a cost-effective technique to improve load balancing for HBM memory channels. We showed that the proposed technique was capable of efficiently redistributing memory requests across multiple memory channels to improve the channel utilization, resulting in improved performance.PHDElectrical EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145988/1/bcoh_1.pd

Study and development of innovative strategies for energy-efficient cross-layer design of digital VLSI systems based on Approximate Computing

The increasing demand on requirements for high performance and energy efficiency in modern digital systems has led to the research of new design approaches that are able to go beyond the established energy-performance tradeoff. Looking at scientific literature, the Approximate Computing paradigm has been particularly prolific. Many applications in the domain of signal processing, multimedia, computer vision, machine learning are known to be particularly resilient to errors occurring on their input data and during computation, producing outputs that, although degraded, are still largely acceptable from the point of view of quality. The Approximate Computing design paradigm leverages the characteristics of this group of applications to develop circuits, architectures, algorithms that, by relaxing design constraints, perform their computations in an approximate or inexact manner reducing energy consumption. This PhD research aims to explore the design of hardware/software architectures based on Approximate Computing techniques, filling the gap in literature regarding effective applicability and deriving a systematic methodology to characterize its benefits and tradeoffs. The main contributions of this work are: -the introduction of approximate memory management inside the Linux OS, allowing dynamic allocation and de-allocation of approximate memory at user level, as for normal exact memory; - the development of an emulation environment for platforms with approximate memory units, where faults are injected during the simulation based on models that reproduce the effects on memory cells of circuital and architectural techniques for approximate memories; -the implementation and analysis of the impact of approximate memory hardware on real applications: the H.264 video encoder, internally modified to allocate selected data buffers in approximate memory, and signal processing applications (digital filter) using approximate memory for input/output buffers and tap registers; -the development of a fully reconfigurable and combinatorial floating point unit, which can work with reduced precision formats

Strategies to enhance the 3T1D-DRAM cell variability robustness beyond 22 nm

3T1D cell has been stated as a valid alternative to be implemented on L1 memory cache to substitute 6T, highly affected by device variability as technology dimensions are reduced. In this work, we have shown that 22 nm 3T1D memory cells present significant tolerance to high levels of device parameter fluctuation. Moreover, we have observed that when variability is considered the write access transistor becomes a significant detrimental element on the 3T1D cell performance. Furthermore, resizing and temperature control have been presented as some valid strategies in order to mitigate the 3T1D cell variability.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Design, performance, and energy consumption of eDRAM/SRAM macrocells for L1 data caches

(c) 2012 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other worksSRAM and DRAM have been the predominant technologies used to implement memory cells in computer systems, each one having its advantages and shortcomings. SRAM cells are faster and require no refresh since reads are not destructive. In contrast, DRAM cells provide higher density and minimal leakage energy since there are no paths within the cell from Vdd to ground. Recently, DRAM cells have been embedded in logic-based technology (eDRAM), thus overcoming the speed limit of typical DRAM cells. In this paper, we propose a hybrid n-bit macrocell that implements one SRAM cell and n-1 eDRAM cells. This cell is aimed at being used in an n-way set-associative first-level data cache. Architectural mechanisms (e.g., special writeback policies) have been devised to completely avoid refresh logic. Performance, energy, and area have been analyzed in detail. Experimental results show that using typical eDRAM capacitors, and compared to a conventional cache, a 4-way set-associative hybrid cache reduces both energy consumption and area up to 54 and 29 percent, respectively, while having negligible impact on performance (less than 2 percent).This work was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (MICINN), and jointly financed with Plan E funds under Grant TIN2009-14475-C04-01 and by Consolider-Ingenio 2010 under Grant CSD2006-00046.Valero Bresó, A.; Petit Martí, SV.; Sahuquillo Borrás, J.; López Rodríguez, PJ.; Duato Marín, JF. (2012). Design, performance, and energy consumption of eDRAM/SRAM macrocells for L1 data caches. IEEE Transactions on Computers. 61(9):1231-1242. https://doi.org/10.1109/TC.2011.138S1231124261

Impact on performance and energy of the retention time and processor frequency in L1 macrocell-based data caches

[EN] Cache memories dissipate an important amount of the energy budget in current microprocessors. This is mainly due to cache cells are typically implemented with six transistors. To tackle this design concern, recent research has focused on the proposal of new cache cells. An n-bit cache cell, namely macrocell, has been proposed in a previous work. This cell combines SRAM and eDRAM technologies with the aim of reducing energy consumption while maintaining the performance. The capacitance of eDRAM cells impacts on energy consumption and performance since these cells lose their state once the retention time expires. On such a case, data must be fetched from a lower level of the memory hierarchy, so negatively impacting on performance and energy consumption. As opposite, if the capacitance is too high, energy would be wasted without bringing performance benefits. This paper identifies the optimal capacitance for a given processor frequency. To this end, the tradeoff between performance and energy consumption of a macrocell-based cache has been evaluated varying the capacitance and frequency. Experimental results show that, compared to a conventional cache, performance losses are lower than 2% and energy savings are up to 55% for a cache with 10 fF capacitors and frequencies higher than 1 GHz. In addition, using trench capacitors, a 4-bit macrocell reduces by 29% the area of four conventional SRAM cells.This work was supported in part by Spanish CICYT under Grant TIN2009-14475-C04-01, by Consolider-Ingenio 2010 under Grant CSD2006-00046, and by European community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under Grant 289154.Valero Bresó, A.; Sahuquillo Borrás, J.; Lorente Garcés, VJ.; Petit Martí, SV.; López Rodríguez, PJ.; Duato Marín, JF. (2012). Impact on performance and energy of the retention time and processor frequency in L1 macrocell-based data caches. IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems. 20(6):1108-1117. https://doi.org/10.1109/TVLSI.2011.2142202S1108111720

Cache architectures based on heterogeneous technologies to deal with manufacturing errors

[EN] SRAM technology has traditionally been used to implement processor caches since it is the fastest existing RAM technology.However,one of the major drawbacks of this technology is its high energy consumption.To reduce this energy consumption modern processors mainly use two complementary techniques: i)low-power operating modes and ii)low-power memory technologies.The first technique allows the processor working at low clock frequencies and supply voltages.The main limitation of this technique is that manufacturing defects can significantly affect the reliability of SRAM cells when working these modes.The second technique brings alternative technologies such as eDRAM, which provides minimum area and power consumption.The main drawback of this memory technology is that reads are destructive and eDRAM cells work slower than SRAM ones. This thesis presents three main contributions regarding low-power caches and heterogeneous technologies: i)an study that identifies the optimal capacitance of eDRAM cells, ii)a novel cache design that tolerates the faults produced by SRAM cells in low-power modes, iii)a methodology that allows obtain the optimal operating frequency/voltage level when working with low-power modes. Regarding the first contribution,in this work SRAM and eDRAM technologies are combined to achieve a low-power fast cache that requires smaller area than conventional designs and that tolerates SRAM failures.First,this dissertation focuses on one of the main critical aspects of the design of heterogeneous caches:eDRAM cell capacitance.In this dissertation the optimal capacitance for an heterogeneous L1 data cache is identified by analyzing the compromise between performance and energy consumption.Experimental results show that an heterogeneous cache implemented with 10fF capacitors offers similar performance as a conventional SRAM cache while providing 55% energy savings and reducing by 29% the cache area. Regarding the second contribution,this thesis proposes a novel organization for a fault-tolerant heterogeneous cache.Currently,reducing the supply voltage is a mechanism widely used to reduce consumption and applies when the system workload activity decreases.However,SRAM cells cause different types of failures when the supply voltage is reduced and thus they limit the minimum operating voltage of the microprocessor. In the proposal,memory cells implemented with eDRAM technology serve as backup in case of failure of SRAM cells, because the correct operation of eDRAM cells is not affected by reduced voltages. The proposed architecture has two working modes: high-performance mode for supply voltages that do not induce SRAM cell failures, and low-power mode for those voltages that cause SRAM cell failures. In high-performance mode, the cache provides full capacity, which enables the processor to achieve its maximum performance. In low-power mode, the effective capacity of the cache is reduced because some of the eDRAM cells are dedicated to recover from SRAM failures. Experimental results show that the performance is scarcely reduced (e.g. less than 2.7% across all the studied benchmarks) with respect to an ideal SRAM cache without failures. Finally,this thesis proposes a methodology to find the optimal frequency/voltage level regarding energy consumption for the designed heterogeneous cache. For this purpose, first SRAM failure types and their probabilities are characterized.Then,the energy consumption of different frequency/voltage levels is evaluated when the system works in low-power mode.The study shows that, mainly due to the impact of SRAM failures on performance,the optimal combination of voltage and frequency from the energy point of view does not always correspond to the minimum voltage.[ES] La tecnología SRAM se ha utilizado tradicionalmente para implementar las memorias cache debido a que es la tecnología de memoria RAM más rápida existente.Por contra,uno de los principales inconvenientes de esta tecnología es su elevado consumo energético.Para reducirlo los procesadores modernos suelen emplear dos técnicas complementarias:i) modos de funcionamiento de bajo consumo y ii)tecnologías de bajo consumo.La primeras técnica consiste en utilizar bajas frecuencias y voltajes de funcionamiento.La principal limitación de esta técnica es que los defectos de fabricación pueden afectar notablemente a la fiabilidad de las celdas SRAM en estos modos.La segunda técnica agrupa tecnologías alternativas como la eDRAM,que ofrece área y consumo mínimos.El inconveniente de esta tecnología es que las lecturas son destructivas y es más lenta que la SRAM. Esta tesis presenta tres contribuciones principales centradas en caches de bajo consumo y tecnologías heterogéneas: i)estudio de la capacitancia óptima de las celdas eDRAM, ii)diseño de una cache tolerante a fallos producidos en las celdas SRAM en modos de bajo consumo, iii)metodología para obtener la relación óptima entre voltaje y frecuencia en procesadores con modos de bajo consumo. Respecto a la primera contribución,en este trabajo se combinan las tecnologías SRAM y eDRAM para conseguir una memoria cache rápida, de bajo consumo, área reducida, y tolerante a los fallos inherentes a la tecnología SRAM.En primer lugar,esta disertación se centra en uno de los aspectos críticos de diseño de caches heterogéneas SRAM/eDRAM: la capacitancia de los condensadores implementados con tecnología eDRAM.En esta tesis se identifica la capacitancia óptima de una cache de datos L1 heterogénea mediante el estudio del compromiso entre prestaciones y consumo energético.Los resultados experimentales muestran que condensadores de 10fF ofrecen prestaciones similares a las de una cache SRAM convencional ahorrando un 55% de consumo y reduciendo un 29% el área ocupada por la cache. Respecto a la segunda contribución,esta tesis propone una organización de cache heterogénea tolerante a fallos.Actualmente,reducir el voltaje de alimentación es un mecanismo muy utilizado para reducir el consumo en condiciones de baja carga.Sin embargo,las celdas SRAM producen distintos tipos de fallos cuando se reduce el voltaje de alimentación y por tanto limitan el voltaje mínimo de funcionamiento del microprocesador. En la cache heterogénea propuesta,las celdas de memoria implementadas con tecnología eDRAM sirven de copia de seguridad en caso de fallo de las celdas SRAM, ya que el correcto funcionamiento de las celdas eDRAM no se ve afectado por tensiones reducidas.La arquitectura propuesta consta de dos modos de funcionamiento: high-performance mode para voltajes de alimentación que no inducen fallos en celdas implementadas en tecnología SRAM, y low-power mode para aquellos que sí lo hacen. En el modo high-performance mode,el procesador dispone de toda la capacidad de la cache.En el modo low-power mode se reduce la capacidad efectiva de la cache puesto que algunas de las celdas eDRAM se dedican a la recuperación de fallos de celdas SRAM.El estudio de prestaciones realizado muestra que éstas bajan hasta un máximo de 2.7% con respecto a una cache perfecta sin fallos. Finalmente, en esta tesis se propone una metodología para encontrar la relación óptima de voltaje/frecuencia con respecto al consumo energético sobre la cache heterogénea previamente diseñada. Para ello,primero se caracterizan los tipos de fallos SRAM y las probabilidades de fallo de los mismos.Después,se evalúa el consumo energético de diferentes combinaciones de voltaje/frecuencia cuando el sistema se encuentra en un modo de bajo consumo.El estudio muestra que la combinación óptima de voltaje y frecuencia desde el punto de vista energético no siempre corresponde al mínimo voltaje debido al imp[CA] La tecnologia SRAM s'ha utilitzat tradicionalment per a implementar les memòries cau degut a que és la tecnologia de memòria RAM més ràpida existent.Per contra, un dels principals inconvenients d'aquesta tecnologia és el seu elevat consum energètic.Per a reduir el consum els processadors moderns solen emprar dues tècniques complementàries: i)modes de funcionament de baix consum i ii)tecnologies de baix consum.La primera tècnica consisteix en utilitzar baixes freqüències i voltatges de funcionament.La principal limitació d'aquesta tècnica és que els defectes de fabricació poden afectar notablement a la fiabilitat de les cel·les SRAM en aquests modes.La segona tècnica agrupa tecnologies alternatives com la eDRAM, que ofereix àrea i consum mínims.L'inconvenient d'aquesta tecnologia és que les lectures són destructives i és més lenta que la SRAM. Aquesta tesi presenta tres contribucions principals centrades en caus de baix consum i tecnologies heterogènies: i)estudi de la capacitancia òptima de les cel·les eDRAM, ii)disseny d'una cau tolerant a fallades produïdes en les cel·les SRAM en modes de baix consum, iii)metodologia per a obtenir la relació òptima entre voltatge i freqüència en processadors amb modes de baix consum. Respecte a la primera contribució, en aquest treball es combinen les tecnologies SRAM i eDRAM per a aconseguir una memòria cau ràpida, de baix consum, àrea reduïda, i tolerant a les fallades inherents a la tecnologia SRAM.En primer lloc, aquesta dissertació se centra en un dels aspectes crítics de disseny de caus heterogènies: la capacitancia dels condensadors implementats amb tecnologia eDRAM.En aquesta dissertació s'identifica la capacitancia òptima d'una cache de dades L1 heterogènia mitjançant l'estudi del compromís entre prestacions i consum energètic.Els resultats experimentals mostren que condensadors de 10fF ofereixen prestacions similars a les d'una cau SRAM convencional estalviant un 55% de consum i reduint un 29% l'àrea ocupada per la cau. Respecte a la segona contribució, aquesta tesi proposa una organització de cau heterogènia tolerant a fallades.Actualment,reduir el voltatge d'alimentació és un mecanisme molt utilitzat per a reduir el consum en condicions de baixa càrrega.Per contra, les cel·les SRAM produeixen diferents tipus de fallades quan es redueix el voltatge d'alimentació i per tant limiten el voltatge mínim de funcionament del microprocessador. En la cau heterogènia proposta, les cel·les de memòria implementades amb tecnologia eDRAM serveixen de còpia de seguretat en cas de fallada de les cel·les SRAM, ja que el correcte funcionament de les cel·les eDRAM no es veu afectat per tensions reduïdes.L'arquitectura proposada consta de dues maneres de funcionament: high-performance mode per a voltatges d'alimentació que no indueixen fallades en cel·les implementades en tecnologia SRAM,i low-power mode per a aquells que sí ho fan.En el mode high-performance,el processador disposa de tota la capacitat de la cau.En el mode low-power es redueix la capacitat efectiva de la cau posat que algunes de les cel·les eDRAM es dediquen a la recuperació de fallades de cel·les SRAM.L'estudi de prestacions realitzat mostra que aquestes baixen fins a un màxim de 2.7% pel que fa a una cache perfecta sense fallades. Finalment,en aquesta tesi es proposa una metodologia per a trobar la relació òptima de voltatge/freqüència pel que fa al consum energètic sobre la cau heterogènia prèviament dissenyada.Per a açò,primer es caracteritzen els tipus de fallades SRAM i les probabilitats de fallada de les mateixes.Després,s'avalua el consum energètic de diferents combinacions de voltatge/freqüència quan el sistema es troba en un mode de baix consum.L'estudi mostra que la combinació òptima de voltatge i freqüència des del punt de vista energètic no sempre correspon al mínim voltatge degut a l'impacte de les fallades de SRAM en les presLorente Garcés, VJ. (2015). Cache architectures based on heterogeneous technologies to deal with manufacturing errors [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/58428TESI

Enabling a reliable STT-MRAM main memory simulation

STT-MRAM is a promising new memory technology with very desirable set of properties such as non-volatility, byte-addressability and high endurance. It has the potential to become the universal memory that could be incorporated to all levels of memory hierarchy. Although STT-MRAM technology got significant attention of various major memory manufacturers, to this day, academic research of STT-MRAM main memory remains marginal. This is mainly due to the unavailability of publicly available detailed timing parameters which are required to perform a cycle accurate main memory simulation. Our study presents a detailed analysis of STT-MRAM main memory timing and propose an approach to perform a reliable system level simulation of the memory technology. We seamlessly incorporate STT-MRAM timing parameters into DRAMSim2 memory simulator and use it as a part of the simulation infrastructure of the high-performance computing (HPC) systems. Our results suggests that, STT-MRAM main memory would provide performance comparable to DRAM, while opening up various opportunities for HPC system improvements. Most importantly, our study enables researchers to conduct reliable system level research on STT-MRAM main memory, and to explore the opportunities that this technology has to offer.This work was supported by BSC, Spanish Government through Programa Severo Ochoa (SEV-2015-0493), by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology through TIN2015-65316-P project and by the Generalitat de Catalunya (contracts 2014-SGR-1051 and 2014-SGR-1272). This work has also received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under ExaNoDe project (grant agreement No 671578). The authors wish to thank Terry Hulett, Duncan Bennett and Ben Cooke from Everspin Technologies Inc., for their technical support.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft