Decoupled zero-compressed memory

For each computer system generation, there are always applications or workloads for which the main memory size is the major limitation. On the other hand, in many cases, one could free a very significant portion of the memory space by storing data in a compressed form. Therefore, a hardware compressed memory is an attractive way to artificially increase the amount of data accessible in a reasonable delay. Among the data that are highly compressible are null data blocks. Previous work has shown that, on many applications null blocks represent a significant fraction of the working set resident in main memory. We propose to leverage this property through the use of a hardware compressed memory that only targets null data blocks, the decoupled zero-compressed memory. Borrowing ideas from the decoupled sectored cache [12] and the zero-content augmented cache [7], the decoupled zero-compressed memory, or DZC memory, manages the main memory as a decoupled sectored set-associative cache wh...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2011
• Where: HIPEAC
• Authors: Julien Dusser, André Seznec
• Keywords: HIPEAC 2011, Memory Hierarchy, Physical Memory Size, System Software, Zero Content