Low-Power Encoding for PAM-3 DRAM Bus

TL;DR

This paper introduces three low-power encoding algorithms for PAM-3 signaling in DRAM interfaces, significantly reducing energy consumption and improving efficiency in high-speed memory links.

Contribution

It presents novel PAM-3 encoding algorithms specifically designed to lower power consumption in DRAM memory interfaces.

Findings

Reduced termination power by 41% to 90% in benchmarks

Demonstrated energy efficiency improvements in DRAM links

Validated algorithms using gem5 simulator traces

Abstract

The 3-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM-3) signaling is expected to be widely used in memory interfaces for its greater voltage margins compared to PAM-4. To maximize the benefit of PAM-3, we propose three low-power data encoding algorithms: PAM3-DBI, PAM3-MF, and PAM3-SORT. With the DRAM memory traces from the gem5 computer architecture simulator running benchmarks, we evaluate the energy efficiency of our three PAM-3 encoding techniques. The experimental results show the proposed algorithms can reduce termination power for high-speed memory links significantly by 41% to 90% for benchmark programs.