research-article

Efficient LDPC Code Design for Combating Asymmetric Errors in STT-RAM

Authors:

Wujie WenAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Journal on Emerging Technologies in Computing Systems (JETC), Volume 14, Issue 1

Article No.: 10, Pages 1 - 20

https://doi.org/10.1145/3154836

Published: 08 March 2018 Publication History

Abstract

Spin-transfer torque random access memory (STT-RAM) is a promising emerging memory technology in the future memory hierarchy. However, its unique reliability challenges, i.e., the asymmetric bit failure mechanism at different bit flippings, have raised significant concerns in its real applications. Recent studies even show that the common memory error repair “remedies” cannot efficiently address them. In this article, we for the first time systematically study the potentials of the strong low-density parity-check (LDPC) code for combating such unique asymmetric errors in both single-level-cell (SLC) and multi-level-cell (MLC) STT-RAM designs. A generic STT-RAM channel model suitable for the SLC/MLC designs, is developed to analytically calibrate all the accumulated asymmetric factors of the write/read operations. The key initial information for LDPC decoding, namely asymmetric log-likelihood ratio (A-LLR), is redesigned and extracted from the proposed channel model, to unleash the LDPC’s asymmetric error correcting capability. LDPC codec is also carefully designed to lower the hardware cost by leveraging the systematic-structured parity check matrix. Then two customized short-length LDPC codes—(585,512) and (683,512)—augmented from the semi-random parity check matrix and the A-LLR based asymmetric decoding, are proposed for SLC and MLC STT-RAM designs, respectively. Experiments show that our proposed LDPC designs can improve the STT-RAM reliability by at least 10² (10⁴) when compared to the existing error correction codes (ECCs) for the SLC (MLC) design, demonstrating the feasibility of LDPC solutions on STT-RAM.

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Cited By

Zhang JChen ZZhang S(2021)EXIT Analysis of Interleaver Division Multiple Access System with LDPC CodeIOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science10.1088/1755-1315/693/1/012059693:1(012059)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2021
https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/693/1/012059
Cheng MJing LNg M(2020)Robust Unsupervised Cross-modal Hashing for Multimedia RetrievalACM Transactions on Information Systems10.1145/338954738:3(1-25)Online publication date: 5-Jun-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3389547
Tai FCui YLiu WLi Z(2019)Study on Data Analysis of Assessment in Class Based on Students' Evaluation of TeachingProceedings of the 2019 International Conference on Big Data and Education10.1145/3322134.3322138(103-107)Online publication date: 30-Mar-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3322134.3322138

Index Terms

Efficient LDPC Code Design for Combating Asymmetric Errors in STT-RAM
1. Hardware
  1. Integrated circuits
    1. Semiconductor memory
      1. Non-volatile memory
  2. Robustness
    1. Fault tolerance
      1. Error detection and error correction
      2. Redundancy
2. Theory of computation
  1. Randomness, geometry and discrete structures
    1. Error-correcting codes

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Published In

cover image ACM Journal on Emerging Technologies in Computing Systems

ACM Journal on Emerging Technologies in Computing Systems Volume 14, Issue 1

January 2018

289 pages

ISSN:1550-4832

EISSN:1550-4840

DOI:10.1145/3143783

Editor:
Yuan Xie
University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2018 ACM.

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

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ACM Journals for the Design of Smart and Connected Systems

Publication History

Published: 08 March 2018

Accepted: 01 October 2017

Revised: 01 July 2017

Received: 01 April 2017

Published in JETC Volume 14, Issue 1

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National Natural Science Foundation of China NSFC
new strategic industries development projects of Shenzhen City

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Cited By

Zhang JChen ZZhang S(2021)EXIT Analysis of Interleaver Division Multiple Access System with LDPC CodeIOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science10.1088/1755-1315/693/1/012059693:1(012059)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2021
https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/693/1/012059
Cheng MJing LNg M(2020)Robust Unsupervised Cross-modal Hashing for Multimedia RetrievalACM Transactions on Information Systems10.1145/338954738:3(1-25)Online publication date: 5-Jun-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3389547
Tai FCui YLiu WLi Z(2019)Study on Data Analysis of Assessment in Class Based on Students' Evaluation of TeachingProceedings of the 2019 International Conference on Big Data and Education10.1145/3322134.3322138(103-107)Online publication date: 30-Mar-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3322134.3322138

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