Demystifying Emerging Nonvolatile Memory Technologies: Understanding Advantages, Challenges, Trends, and Novel Applications

With CMOS scaling moving toward an end, some “out-of-the-box” non-volatile memory (NVM) technologies come to life and promise to break the “memory wall”, fill the gap between memory and processor computation, and to cope with the limitations of conventional memory technologies that become limited in fulfilling the new requirements of the changing market trends. With the emergence of distinct NVM technologies, such as STT-RAM, PCM, and ReRAM, the concept of “universal memory” seems to be now achievable and about to have a far-reaching impact on the computing market. This paper studies each of the distinctive emerging non-volatile memories (STT-RAM, PCM, ReRAM) and presents their benefits, current limitations and trends, as well as their potential novel applications in a broad range of fields.