PIM-malloc: A Fast and Scalable Dynamic Memory Allocator for Processing-In-Memory (PIM) Architectures

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Lee, Dongjae, Hyun, Bongjoon, Kwon, Youngjin, Rhu, Minsoo
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Lee, Dongjae
Hyun, Bongjoon
Kwon, Youngjin
Rhu, Minsoo
author_facet Lee, Dongjae
Hyun, Bongjoon
Kwon, Youngjin
Rhu, Minsoo
contents The ability to dynamically allocate memory is fundamental in modern programming languages. However, this feature is not adequately supported in current general-purpose PIM devices. To identify key design principles that PIM must consider, we conduct a design space exploration of PIM memory allocators, examining various strategies for metadata placement and management of the allocator. Based on this exploration, we introduce PIM-malloc, a fast and scalable memory allocator for general-purpose PIM that operates on real PIM hardware, achieving a x66 improvement in memory allocation performance. This design is further enhanced with a lightweight, per-PIM core hardware cache, specifically designed for dynamic memory allocation, achieving an additional 31% performance improvement. Finally, we demonstrate the applicability of PIM-malloc by developing several representative PIM workloads, demonstrating its effectiveness in enhancing programmability.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_13002
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle PIM-malloc: A Fast and Scalable Dynamic Memory Allocator for Processing-In-Memory (PIM) Architectures
Lee, Dongjae
Hyun, Bongjoon
Kwon, Youngjin
Rhu, Minsoo
Hardware Architecture
The ability to dynamically allocate memory is fundamental in modern programming languages. However, this feature is not adequately supported in current general-purpose PIM devices. To identify key design principles that PIM must consider, we conduct a design space exploration of PIM memory allocators, examining various strategies for metadata placement and management of the allocator. Based on this exploration, we introduce PIM-malloc, a fast and scalable memory allocator for general-purpose PIM that operates on real PIM hardware, achieving a x66 improvement in memory allocation performance. This design is further enhanced with a lightweight, per-PIM core hardware cache, specifically designed for dynamic memory allocation, achieving an additional 31% performance improvement. Finally, we demonstrate the applicability of PIM-malloc by developing several representative PIM workloads, demonstrating its effectiveness in enhancing programmability.
title PIM-malloc: A Fast and Scalable Dynamic Memory Allocator for Processing-In-Memory (PIM) Architectures
topic Hardware Architecture
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.13002