Random-Access Memory (RAM)

Key features Lecture 13 RAM is packaged as a chip. Basic storage unit is a cell (one bit per cell). The Memory Hierarchy Multiple RAM chips form a memory. Static RAM (SRAM) See Lecture 7B CA2 page 12 Each cell stores bit with a six-transistor circuit. Topics Retains value indefinitely, as long as it is kept powered. Relatively insensitive to disturbances such as electrical noise. Storage technologies and trends Faster and more expensive than DRAM. Locality of reference Dynamic RAM (DRAM) Caching in the memory hierarchy Each cell stores bit with a capacitor and transistor. Value must be refreshed every 10-100 ms. Sensitive to disturbances. Slower and cheaper than SRAM.

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SRAM vs DRAM Summary Conventional DRAM Organization

d x w DRAM: dw total bits organized as d supercells of size w bits

Tran. Access 16 x 8 DRAM chip per bit time Persist? Sensitive? Cost Applications cols 0 1 2 3

2 bits 0 SRAM 6 1X Yes No 100X cache memories / addr 1 DRAM 1 10X No Yes 1X Main memories, rows memory frame buffers 2 supercell controller (to CPU) (2,1) 3 8 bits / data

internal row buffer F13 – 3 – Datorarkitektur 2009 F13 – 4 – Datorarkitektur 2009 Reading DRAM Supercell (2,1) Reading DRAM Supercell (2,1) Step 2(a): Column access strobe (CAS) selects column 1. Step 1(a): Row access strobe (RAS) selects row 2. Step 2(b): Supercell (2,1) copied from buffer to data lines, and Step 1(b): Row 2 copied from DRAM array to row buffer. eventually back to the CPU. 16 x 8 DRAM chip 16 x 8 DRAM chip cols cols 0 1 2 3 0 RAS = 2 CAS = 1 1 2 3 2 2 0 / / 0 addr addr 1 To CPU 1 memory rows memory rows 2 controller controller 2

8 3 supercell 8 3 / (2,1) / data data

internal row buffer supercell internal row buffer (2,1) internal buffer F13 – 5 – Datorarkitektur 2009 F13 – 6 – Datorarkitektur 2009

Memory Modules Enhanced DRAMs addr (row = i, col = j) All enhanced DRAMs are built around the conventional : supercell (i,j) DRAM core. DRAM 0 64 MB Fast page mode DRAM (FPM DRAM) memory module Access contents of row with [RAS, CAS, CAS, CAS, CAS] instead of

DRAM 7 consisting of [(RAS,CAS), (RAS,CAS), (RAS,CAS), (RAS,CAS)]. eight 8Mx8 DRAMs Extended data out DRAM (EDO DRAM) Enhanced FPM DRAM with more closely spaced CAS signals. Synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) bits bits bits bits bits bits bits bits 56-63 48-55 40-47 32-39 24-31 16-23 8-15 0-7 Driven with rising clock edge instead of asynchronous control signals. Double data-rate synchronous DRAM (DDR SDRAM) 63 56 55 48 47 40 39 32 31 24 23 16 15 8 7 0 Memory Enhancement of SDRAM that uses both clock edges as control controller signals. 64-bit doubleword at main memory address A Video RAM (VRAM) Like FPM DRAM, but output is produced by shifting row buffer 64-bit doubleword Dual ported (allows concurrent reads and writes)

F13 – 7 – Datorarkitektur 2009 F13 – 8 – Datorarkitektur 2009 Typical Bus Structure Connecting Nonvolatile Memories CPU and Memory DRAM and SRAM are volatile memories A bus is a collection of parallel wires that carry address, Lose information if powered off. data, and control signals. Nonvolatile memories retain value even if powered off. Generic name is read-only memory (ROM). Buses are typically shared by multiple devices. Misleading because some ROMs can be read and modified. Types of ROMs CPU chip Programmable ROM (PROM) register file Eraseable programmable ROM (EPROM) Electrically eraseable PROM (EEPROM) ALU Flash memory system bus memory bus Firmware Program stored in a ROM I/O main bus interface Boot time code, BIOS (basic input/ouput system) bridge memory graphics cards, disk controllers.

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Memory Read Transaction (1) Memory Read Transaction (2)

CPU places address A on the memory bus. Main memory reads A from the memory bus, retreives word x and places it on the bus.

main memory main memory I/O bridge 0 0 A I/O bridge x

bus interface x A bus interface x A

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CPU read word x from the bus and copies it into register %eax. CPU places address A on bus. Main memory reads it and waits for the corresponding data word to arrive.

main memory main memory I/O bridge 0 I/O bridge 0 A

bus interface x A bus interface A

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Memory Write Transaction (2) Memory Write Transaction (3)

CPU places data word y on the bus. Main memory read data word y from the bus and stores it at address A.

register file register file Store operation: movl %eax, A Store operation: movl %eax, A ALU ALU %eax y %eax y main memory main memory 0 I/O bridge 0 I/O bridge y bus interface A bus interface y A

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Disks consist of platters, each with two surfaces. Aligned tracks form a cylinder.

Each surface consists of concentric rings called tracks. cylinder k Each track consists of sectors separated by gaps. surface 0 platter 0 tracks surface 1 surface surface 2 track k gaps platter 1 surface 3 surface 4 platter 2 surface 5 spindle spindle

sectors

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Disk Capacity Computing Disk Capacity Capacity = (# bytes/sector) x (avg. # sectors/track) x Capacity: maximum number of bits that can be stored. Vendors express capacity in units of gigabytes (GB), where 1 GB = 10^9. (# tracks/surface) x (# surfaces/platter) x (# platters/disk) Capacity is determined by these technology factors: (# platters/disk) Recording density (bits/in): number of bits that can be squeezed into a 1 Example: inch segment of a track. 512 bytes/sector Track density (tracks/in): number of tracks that can be squeezed into a 1 300 sectors/track (on average) inch radial segment. 20,000 tracks/surface 2 surfaces/platter Areal density (bits/in2): product of recording and track density. 5 platters/disk Modern disks partition tracks into disjoint subsets called recording zones Capacity = 512 x 300 x 20000 x 2 x 5 Each track in a zone has the same number of sectors, determined by the circumference of innermost track. = 30,720,000,000 Each zone has a different number of sectors/track = 30.72 GB

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The read/write head read/write heads move in unison The disk surface is attached to the end from cylinder to cylinder spins at a fixed of the arm and flies over rotational rate the disk surface on a thin cushion of air. arm s

e p

l e l d n i p i s n d n d

spindi le l e p s spindle By moving radially, the arm can position the read/write head over any track.

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Disk Access Time Disk Access Time Example Given: Average time to access some target sector approximated by : Rotational rate = 7,200 RPM Taccess = Tavg seek + Tavg rotation + Tavg transfer Average seek time = 9 ms. Avg # sectors/track = 400. Seek time (Tavg seek) Derived: Time to position heads over cylinder containing target sector. Tavg rotation = 1/2 x (60 secs/7200 RPM) x 1000 ms/sec = 4 ms. Typical Tavg seek = 9 ms Tavg transfer = 60/7200 RPM x 1/400 secs/track x 1000 ms/sec = 0.02 ms Rotational latency (Tavg rotation) Taccess = 9 ms + 4 ms + 0.02 ms Time waiting for first bit of target sector to pass under r/w head. Important points: Access time dominated by seek time and rotational latency. Tavg rotation = 1/2 x 1/RPMs x 60 sec/1 min First bit in a sector is the most expensive, the rest are free. Transfer time (Tavg transfer) SRAM access time is about 4 ns/doubleword, DRAM about 60 ns Time to read the bits in the target sector. Disk is about 40,000 times slower than SRAM, Tavg transfer = 1/RPM x 1/(avg # sectors/track) x 60 secs/1 min. 2,500 times slower then DRAM.

F13 – 23 – Datorarkitektur 2009 F13 – 24 – Datorarkitektur 2009 Logical Disk Blocks I/O Bus CPU chip Modern disks present a simpler abstract view of the complex register file sector geometry: ALU The set of available sectors is modeled as a sequence of b-sized system bus memory bus logical blocks (0, 1, 2, ...)

I/O main Mapping between logical blocks and actual (physical) bus interface sectors bridge memory Maintained by hardware/firmware device called disk controller. Converts requests for logical blocks into (surface,track,sector) triples. I/O bus Expansion slots for other devices such USB graphics disk Allows controller to set aside spare cylinders for each zone. as network adapters. controller adapter controller Accounts for the difference in “formatted capacity” and “maximum capacity”. mouse keyboard monitor disk F13 – 25 – Datorarkitektur 2009 F13 – 26 – Datorarkitektur 2009

Reading a Disk Sector (1) Reading a Disk Sector (2) CPU chip CPU chip CPU initiates a disk read by writing a Disk controller reads the sector and performs register file register file command, logical block number, and a direct memory access (DMA) transfer into ALU destination memory address to a port ALU main memory. (address) associated with disk controller.

main main bus interface bus interface memory memory

I/O bus I/O bus

USB graphics disk USB graphics disk controller adapter controller controller adapter controller

mouse keyboard monitor mouse keyboard monitor disk disk

F13 – 27 – Datorarkitektur 2009 F13 – 28 – Datorarkitektur 2009 Reading a Disk Sector (3) Storage Trends CPU chip When the DMA transfer completes, the disk register file controller notifies the CPU with an interrupt metric 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2000:1980 $/MB 19,200 2,900 320 256 100 190 ALU (i.e., asserts a special “interrupt” pin on the SRAM CPU) access (ns) 300 150 35 15 2 100

main metric 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2000:1980 bus interface memory $/MB 8,000 880 100 30 1 8,000 DRAM access (ns) 375 200 100 70 60 6

I/O bus typical size(MB) 0.064 0.256 4 16 64 1,000

metric 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2000:1980 USB graphics disk $/MB 500 100 8 0.30 0.05 10,000 controller adapter controller Disk access (ms) 87 75 28 10 8 11 typical size(MB) 1 10 160 1,000 9,000 9,000 mouse keyboard monitor disk

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CPU Clock Rates The CPU-Memory Gap

The increasing gap between DRAM, disk, and CPU speeds.

1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2000:1980 processor 8080 286 386 Pent P-III 100,000,000 clock rate(MHz) 1 6 20 150 750 750 10,000,000 cycle time(ns) 1,000 166 50 6 1.6 750 1,000,000 100,000 Disk seek time

s DRAM access time n 10,000 SRAM access time 1,000 CPU cycle time 100 10 1 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 year

F13 – 31 – Datorarkitektur 2009 F13 – 32 – Datorarkitektur 2009 Locality Locality Example Principle of Locality: Claim: Being able to look at code and get a qualitative sense Programs tend to reuse data and instructions near those they have of its locality is a key skill for a professional programmer. used recently, or that were recently referenced themselves. Temporal locality: Recently referenced items are likely to be referenced in the near future. Spatial locality: Items with nearby addresses tend to be Question: Does this function have good locality? referenced close together in time. int sumarrayrows(int a[M][N]) Locality Example: sum = 0; for (i = 0; i < n; i++) { • Data sum += a[i]; int i, j, sum = 0; – Reference array elements in succession return sum; (stride-1 reference pattern): Spatial locality for (i = 0; i < M; i++) – Reference sum each iteration: Temporal locality for (j = 0; j < N; j++) • Instructions sum += a[i][j]; – Reference instructions in sequence: Spatial locality return sum – Cycle through loop repeatedly: Temporal locality }

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Locality Example Locality Example

Question: Does this function have good locality? Question: Can you permute the loops so that the function scans the 3-d array a[] with a stride-1 reference pattern (and thus has good spatial locality)? int sumarraycols(int a[M][N]) { int i, j, sum = 0; int sumarray3d(int a[M][N][N]) { for (j = 0; j < N; j++) int i, j, k, sum = 0; for (i = 0; i < M; i++) sum += a[i][j]; for (i = 0; i < M; i++) return sum for (j = 0; j < N; j++) } for (k = 0; k < N; k++) sum += a[k][i][j]; return sum }

F13 – 35 – Datorarkitektur 2009 F13 – 36 – Datorarkitektur 2009 Memory Hierarchies An Example Memory Hierarchy Smaller, Some fundamental and enduring properties of hardware and faster, L0: registers CPU registers hold words retrieved from and software: L1 cache. costlier on-chip L1 L1: Fast storage technologies cost more per byte and have less (per byte) cache (SRAM) L1 cache holds cache lines retrieved from the L2 cache memory. off-chip L2 capacity. storage L2: devices cache (SRAM) L2 cache holds cache lines retrieved The gap between CPU and main memory speed is widening. from main memory. Well-written programs tend to exhibit good locality. Larger, L3: main memory slower, (DRAM) Main memory holds disk blocks retrieved from local and These fundamental properties complement each other disks. cheaper L4: local secondary storage beautifully. (per byte) (local disks) Local disks hold files storage retrieved from disks on devices remote network servers. They suggest an approach for organizing memory and L5: remote secondary storage storage systems known as a memory hierarchy. (distributed file systems, Web servers)

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Caches Caching in a Memory Hierarchy Cache: A smaller, faster storage device that acts as a Smaller, faster, more expensive device at level k caches a staging area for a subset of the data in a larger, slower Level k: 48 9 140 3 subset of the blocks from level k+1 device. Data is copied between 140 Fundamental idea of a memory hierarchy: levels in block-sized transfer units For each k, the faster, smaller device at level k serves as a cache for the larger, slower device at level k+1. Why do memory hierarchies work? 0 1 2 3 Programs tend to access the data at level k more often than they Larger, slower, cheaper storage Level k+1: 4 5 6 7 access the data at level k+1. device at level k+1 is partitioned Thus, the storage at level k+1 can be slower, and thus larger and 8 9 10 11 into blocks. cheaper per bit. 12 13 14 15 Net effect: A large pool of memory that costs as much as the cheap storage near the bottom, but that serves data to programs at the rate of the fast storage near the top.

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Program needs object d, which is stored in Types of cache misses: 142 Request some block b. Cold (compulsary) miss 142 Cache hit 0 1 2 3 Cold misses occur because the cache is empty. Level Program finds b in the cache at level k. 4* 9 14 3 k: 12 E.g., block 14. Conflict miss Cache miss Most caches limit blocks at level k+1 to a small subset (sometimes a 12 Request b is not at level k, so level k cache must singleton) of the block positions at level k. 4* 12 fetch it from level k+1. E.g., block 12. E.g. Block i at level k+1 must be placed in block (i mod 4) at level k. If level k cache is full, then some current Conflict misses occur when the level k cache is large enough, but 0 1 2 3 block must be replaced (evicted). Which multiple data objects all map to the same level k block. Level 44* 5 6 7 one is the “victim”? k+1: E.g. Referencing blocks 0, 8, 0, 8, 0, 8, ... would miss every time. 8 9 10 11 Placement policy: where can the new block 12 13 14 15 go? E.g., b mod 4 Capacity miss Replacement policy: which block should be Occurs when the set of active cache blocks (working set) is larger than evicted? E.g., LRU the cache.

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Examples of Caching in the Hierarchy Cache Type What Cached Where Cached Latency Managed By (cycles) Registers 4-byte word CPU registers 0 Compiler TLB Address On-Chip TLB 0 Hardware translations L1 cache 32-byte block On-Chip L1 1 Hardware L2 cache 32-byte block Off-Chip L2 10 Hardware Virtual Memory 4-KB page Main memory 100 Hardware+ OS Buffer cache Parts of files Main memory 100 OS Network buffer Parts of files Local disk 10,000,000 AFS/NFS cache client Browser cache Web pages Local disk 10,000,000 Web browser Web cache Web pages Remote server 1,000,000,000 Web proxy disks server F13 – 43 – Datorarkitektur 2009