Optimizing Video Application Design for Phase-Change RAM-based Main Memory

Abstract

Video applications including video codecs place a large traffic demand on main memory. Emerging memory technology, such as phase-change RAM (PRAM) tends to suffer from the write endurance problem, in which the maximum number of writes is limited. Thus, it is required to improve video application designs to adapt to the new requirements of emerging memory technology, i.e., to minimize the number of writes in terms of bit updates. In this paper, we present a way to optimize video application design for PRAM-based main memory. We propose two methods to resolve the write endurance problem: inter-block differential data encoding and inter-frame multiple experts. Experimental results show an average of 18.4% reduction in bit updates when compared to the best existing data encoding methods for PRAM.