Large register files are common in highly multi-threaded architectures such as GPUs. This paper presents a hybrid memory design that tightly integrates embedded DRAM into SRAM cells with a main application to reducing area and power consumption of multi-threaded register files. In the hybrid memory, each SRAM cell is augmented with multiple DRAM cells so that multiple bits can be stored in each cell. This configuration results in significant area and energy savings compared to the SRAM array with the same capacity due to compact DRAM cells. On other hand, the hybrid memory requires explicit data movements in order to access DRAM contexts. In order to minimize context switching impact, we introduce write-back buffers, background context switching, and context-aware thread scheduling, to the processor pipeline and the scheduler. Circuit and architecture simulations of GPU benchmarks suites show significant savings in register file area (38%) and energy (68%) over the traditional SRAM implementation, with minimal (1.4%) performance loss.

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This paper introduces a novel information hiding technique for Flash memory. The method hides data within an analog characteristic of Flash, the program time of individual bits. Because the technique uses analog behaviors, normal Flash memory operations are not affected and hidden information is invisible in the data stored in the memory. Even if an attacker checks a Flash chip's analog characteristics, experimental results indicate that the hidden information is difficult to distinguish from inherent manufacturing variation or normal wear on the device. Moreover, the hidden data can survive erasure of the Flash memory data, and the technique can be used on current Flash chips without hardware changes.

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