Guest Editorial: IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computing Thematic Section on Memory- Centric Designs: Processing-in-Memory, In-Memory Computing, and Near-Memory Computing for Real-World Applications

Abstract

The von Neumann architecture has been the status quo since the dawn of modern computing. Computers built on the von Neumann architecture are composed of an intelligent master processor (e.g., CPU) and dumb memory/storage devices incapable of computation (e.g., memory and disk). However, the skyrocketing data volume in modern computing is calling such status quo into question. The excessive amounts of data movement between processor and memory/storage in more and more real-world applications (e.g., machine learning and AI applications) have made the processor-centric design a severe power and performance bottleneck. The diminishing Moore's Law also raises the need for a memory-centric design, which is rising on top of the recent material advancement and manufacturing innovation to open a paradigm shift. By doing computation right inside or near the memory, the memory-centric design promises massive throughput and energy savings.