CAST: Content-Aware STT-MRAM Cache Write Management for Different Levels of Approximation

Spin transfer torque magnetic RAM (STT-MRAM) technology is one of the most promising alternative for static RAM (SRAM) for implementing on-chip memories. Compared with SRAMs, STT-MRAMs benefit from higher density and near-zero leakage power, nonetheless they impose high energy consumption for reliable write operations. However, in many applications, absolute data integrity is not required; thus, acting on the current applied in the write operations may represent a novel knob for disciplined approximate computing to obtain energy saving with a minimal quality loss in applications' outputs. This article proposes CAST, a hardware/software approach to adjust the energy/quality of write operations in STT-MRAM caches in multicore systems based on the content of requested write operations. CAST utilizes fine-grained cache-line-level actuation knobs with different levels of quality for individual write operations. This unique feature of STT-MRAMs allows to avoid interapplication actuation interference suffered by SRAMs, and makes the approach particularly suitable for systems running multiple applications with mixed accuracy sensitivity. Moreover, CAST exploits another peculiarity of STT-MRAMs represented by the asymmetry and transition-dependency of the write error rate, to further tune in a fine-grained manner the write current to achieve an additional energy saving, even in full-accurate applications. Our evaluations on workloads of full-approximate, mixed-criticality, and full-accurate applications demonstrate up to 57%, 34%, and 21% energy savings over a baseline STT-MRAM cache, respectively, with an acceptable quality of the generated outputs

Ageing condition of tensile specimens: fracture behavior of notched Al2024 sheet under tensile loading

The effect of different (T6 and T8) heat treatments on tensile properties and fracture behavior of Al2024 in presence and absence of notch by means of microhardness, tensile tests and scanning electron microscopy were investigated. Tensile and hardness specimens were subjected to two different artificial ageing (T6 and T8 heat treatment) for various times. These included under ageing (UA), peak ageing (PA) and over ageing (OA). T8 heat treatment, which has a cold rolling between solutionizing and ageing in its steps, showed a higher value of hardness and yield strength in comparison with common artificial ageing of T6 heat treatment. In notched-tensile specimens, yield stress was found to increase up to the peak ageing condition with a simultaneously decrease in elongation at fracture. This behavior was converse at OA condition. Although introducing of notch increase the yield stress of samples under T6 and T8 conditions in comparison with un-notched samples, the notch strengthening phenomenon was observed only under T8 treatment. Despite of an enhancement in strengthening by applying notch on tensile samples, the elongation to failure was notably lessen in both notched-heat treated samples in comparison with un-notches ones. Also, it was confirmed that the toughness of notched samples of both heat treatments at PA condition were significantly lower than un-notched ones. Consequently, toughness decrement was considerably dominated by the role of deformability compared to strengthening factor, however, the presence of cold rolling in the process of heat treatment (T8) could reduce the harmful effects of notch by increasing the stress bearing capacity in contrary with T6 heat treatment. Moreover, inserting the mechanical properties of peak aged samples from the un-notched tensile test in Abaqus finite element software; the V-shaped notch tensile test was simulated and confirmed the experimental results. It was shown in SEM results that the presence of notch enhanced the contribution of cracked particles, compared to particle/matrix deboning and matrix deformation, therefore, the non-homogeneous distribution of fracture features confirmed the harmful effect of notch. In the following, the distribution of three fracture micro-mechanisms were homogeneous in un-notched samples, which demonstrated the superior values of toughness in smooth samples. The present finding sheds light on development of processing techniques to optimize the mechanical properties of Al 2024 alloy

Toughness prediction in functionally graded Al6061/SiCp composites produced by roll-bonding

Functionally graded aluminum matrix composites (FGAMC) are new advanced materials with promising applications due to their unique characteristics in which composite nature is combined with graded structure