abstractPIM: A Technology Backward-Compatible Compilation Flow for Processing-In-Memory

TL;DR

abstractPIM introduces a flexible, backward-compatible compilation flow for processing-in-memory architectures, enabling execution of functions across various memristive logic technologies and ISAs, thus broadening PIM applicability.

Contribution

It presents a novel compilation framework that separates target-independent code generation from target-specific microcode, allowing compatibility with multiple PIM technologies and architectures.

Findings

Supports execution of functions across different memristive logic families.

Provides backward compatibility with various target architectures.

Highlights the impact of logic technology choices on performance.

Abstract

The von Neumann architecture, in which the memory and the computation units are separated, demands massive data traffic between the memory and the CPU. To reduce data movement, new technologies and computer architectures have been explored. The use of memristors, which are devices with both memory and computation capabilities, has been considered for different processing-in-memory (PIM) solutions, including using memristive stateful logic for a programmable digital PIM system. Nevertheless, all previous work has focused on a specific stateful logic family, and on optimizing the execution for a certain target machine. These solutions require new compiler and compilation when changing the target machine, and provide no backward compatibility with other target machines. In this chapter, we present abstractPIM, a new compilation concept and flow which enables executing any function within the memory, using different stateful logic families and different instruction set architectures (ISAs). By separating the code generation into two independent components, intermediate representation of the code using target independent ISA and then microcode generation for a specific target machine, we provide a flexible flow with backward compatibility and lay foundations for a PIM compiler. Using abstractPIM, we explore various logic technologies and ISAs and how they impact each other, and discuss the challenges associated with it, such as the increase in execution time.