학술논문

FlipBit: Approximate Flash Memory for IoT Devices
Document Type
Conference
Source
2024 IEEE International Symposium on High-Performance Computer Architecture (HPCA) HPCA High-Performance Computer Architecture (HPCA), 2024 IEEE International Symposium on. :876-890 Mar, 2024
Subject
Computing and Processing
Performance evaluation
Energy consumption
Codes
Machine learning
Computer architecture
Streaming media
Hardware
Approximate Computing
Non-volatile memory
Internet-of-Things
Language
ISSN
2378-203X
Abstract
IoT devices commonly use flash memory for both data and code storage. Flash memory consumes a significant portion of the overall energy of such devices. This is problematic because IoT devices are energy constrained due to their reliance on batteries or energy harvesting. To save energy, we leverage a unique property of flash memory; write operations take unequal amounts of energy depending on if we are flipping a 1 → 0 versus a 0 → 1. We exploit this asymmetry to reduce energy consumption with FLIPBIT, a hardware-software approximation approach that limits costly 0→1 transitions in flash. Instead of performing an exact write, we write an approximated value that avoids any costly 0→1 bit flips. Using FLIPBIT, we reduce the mean energy used by flash by 68% on video streaming applications while maintaining 42 dB PSNR. On machine learning models, we reduce energy by an average of 39% and up to 71% with only a 1% accuracy loss. Additionally, by reducing the number of program-erase cycles, we increase the flash lifetime by 68%.