A Fast and Energy-Efficient Latch-Based Memristive Analog Content-Addressable Memory

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Hauptverfasser: Manea, Paul-Philipp, Natarajan, Aishwarya, Ignowski, Jim, Strachan, John Paul, Buonanno, Luca
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Manea, Paul-Philipp
Natarajan, Aishwarya
Ignowski, Jim
Strachan, John Paul
Buonanno, Luca
author_facet Manea, Paul-Philipp
Natarajan, Aishwarya
Ignowski, Jim
Strachan, John Paul
Buonanno, Luca
contents Analog content-addressable memories (aCAMs) based on memristors provide a promising pathway toward energy-efficient large-scale associative computing for Edge AI and embedded intelligence applications. They have been successfully applied to decision-tree inference and extend the capabilities of compute-in-memory (CIM) architectures beyond conventional vector-matrix multiplication. However, conventional designs such as the 6T2M architecture suffer from static search power, limited voltage gain, and pronounced match-line crosstalk, constraining analog precision and scalability. We introduce a strong-arm latched memristor (SALM) aCAM cell that replaces static voltage division with a dynamic current-race comparator, enabling high regenerative gain, intrinsic result latching, and near-zero static search power. Compared to 6T2M, SALM reduces read energy by 33% at identical latency while eliminating the gain and crosstalk limitations that prevent 6T2M from scaling to large arrays. SALM further enables scalable sequential and parallel latch sharing, and a dataset-aware optimization framework exposes an explicit energy-latency tradeoff, achieving up to 50% energy reduction at 3x latency across representative workloads. To enable architectural exploration, we develop a circuit-accurate behavioral model derived from SPICE lookup tables in 22 nm FD-SOI technology, capturing match-line dynamics and crosstalk. Integrated into the X-TIME decision-tree compiler, this framework demonstrates that SALM maintains near-software accuracy for high-dimensional datasets, whereas baseline designs degrade due to limited gain and cumulative crosstalk.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_11847
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Fast and Energy-Efficient Latch-Based Memristive Analog Content-Addressable Memory
Manea, Paul-Philipp
Natarajan, Aishwarya
Ignowski, Jim
Strachan, John Paul
Buonanno, Luca
Emerging Technologies
Machine Learning
Analog content-addressable memories (aCAMs) based on memristors provide a promising pathway toward energy-efficient large-scale associative computing for Edge AI and embedded intelligence applications. They have been successfully applied to decision-tree inference and extend the capabilities of compute-in-memory (CIM) architectures beyond conventional vector-matrix multiplication. However, conventional designs such as the 6T2M architecture suffer from static search power, limited voltage gain, and pronounced match-line crosstalk, constraining analog precision and scalability. We introduce a strong-arm latched memristor (SALM) aCAM cell that replaces static voltage division with a dynamic current-race comparator, enabling high regenerative gain, intrinsic result latching, and near-zero static search power. Compared to 6T2M, SALM reduces read energy by 33% at identical latency while eliminating the gain and crosstalk limitations that prevent 6T2M from scaling to large arrays. SALM further enables scalable sequential and parallel latch sharing, and a dataset-aware optimization framework exposes an explicit energy-latency tradeoff, achieving up to 50% energy reduction at 3x latency across representative workloads. To enable architectural exploration, we develop a circuit-accurate behavioral model derived from SPICE lookup tables in 22 nm FD-SOI technology, capturing match-line dynamics and crosstalk. Integrated into the X-TIME decision-tree compiler, this framework demonstrates that SALM maintains near-software accuracy for high-dimensional datasets, whereas baseline designs degrade due to limited gain and cumulative crosstalk.
title A Fast and Energy-Efficient Latch-Based Memristive Analog Content-Addressable Memory
topic Emerging Technologies
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.11847