Scratchpad Memories in the Context of Process Scaling

Scratchpad memories have been shown to reduce power consumption, but the different characteristics of nanometer scale processes such as increased leakage power motivate an examination of how the benefits of these memories change with process scaling. Awareness of process trends and application characteristics can help designers predict the energy savings likely to result from the use of a scratchpad memory. CACTI simulations show that leakage, as a percentage of total power, may increase, particularly for applications with few memory accesses per second. Measurements from the 0.18 μm and 65 nm versions of the WIMS Microprocessor demonstrate that scratchpad memories will continue to benefit many applications, even with increased leakage energy, for the foreseeable future.