Maximum Achievable Rate of Resistive Random-Access Memory Channels by Mutual Information Spectrum Analysis

TL;DR

This paper derives the maximum achievable data rate for ReRAM channels considering sneak path interference, using mutual information spectrum analysis to inform better code design strategies.

Contribution

It introduces a mutual information spectrum framework for ReRAM channels with sneak paths, providing explicit rate formulas and insights into coding strategies.

Findings

Maximum achievable rate as a function of channel parameters.

ReRAM channel exhibits multi-status characteristics due to randomness.

Comparison of coding and decoding strategies for optimal performance.

Abstract

The maximum achievable rate is derived for resistive random-access memory (ReRAM) channel with sneak path interference. Based on the mutual information spectrum analysis, the maximum achievable rate of ReRAM channel with independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) binary inputs is derived as an explicit function of channel parameters such as the distribution of cell selector failures and channel noise level. Due to the randomness of cell selector failures, the ReRAM channel demonstrates multi-status characteristic. For each status, it is shown that as the array size is large, the fraction of cells affected by sneak paths approaches a constant value. Therefore, the mutual information spectrum of the ReRAM channel is formulated as a mixture of multiple stationary channels. Maximum achievable rates of the ReRAM channel with different settings, such as single- and across-array codings, with and without data shaping, and optimal and treating-interference-as-noise (TIN) decodings, are compared. These results provide valuable insights on the code design for ReRAM.