A PIM-based multiprocessor system

The growing gap in performance between processor and memory speeds has created a problem for data-intensive applications. A recent approach for solving this problem is to use processor-in-memory (PIM) technology. PIM technology integrates a processor on a DRAM memory chip, which increases bandwidth between the processor and memory. In this paper, we discuss a PIM-based multiprocessor system, the System Level Intelligent Intensive Computing (SLIIC) Quick look (QL) board. This system includes eight COTS PIM chips and two FPGA chips that implement a flexible interconnect network. The performance of the SLIIC QL board is measured and analyzed for the distributed corner-turn application. We show that the performance of the current SLIIC QL on the distributed corner turn application is better than a PowerPC-based multicomputer that consumes more power and occupies more area. This advantage, which can be achieved in a limited context, demonstrates that even limited COTS PIMs have some advantages for data-intensive computations.