Qi Longning, Fan Jinqi, Cai Hao, Fang Ze
School of Integrated Circuits, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China.
Micromachines (Basel). 2024 Apr 1;15(4):488. doi: 10.3390/mi15040488.
In the era of widespread edge computing, energy conservation modes like complete power shutdown are crucial for battery-powered devices, but they risk data loss in volatile memory. Energy autonomous systems, relying on ambient energy, face operational challenges due to power losses. Recent advancements in emerging nonvolatile memories (NVMs) like FRAM, RRAM, MRAM, and PCM offer mature solutions to sustain work progress with minimal energy overhead during outages. This paper thoroughly reviews utilizing emerging NVMs in microcontroller units (MCUs), comparing their key attributes to describe unique benefits and potential applications. Furthermore, we discuss the intricate details of NVM circuit design and NVM-driven compute-in-memory (CIM) architectures. In summary, integrating emerging NVMs into MCUs showcases promising prospects for next-generation applications such as Internet of Things and neural networks.
在广泛应用边缘计算的时代，对于电池供电设备而言，像完全断电这样的节能模式至关重要，但它们存在易失性存储器中数据丢失的风险。依靠环境能量的能量自主系统，由于功率损耗而面临运行挑战。诸如铁电随机存取存储器（FRAM）、电阻式随机存取存储器（RRAM）、磁阻随机存取存储器（MRAM）和相变存储器（PCM）等新兴非易失性存储器（NVM）的最新进展提供了成熟的解决方案，以便在断电期间以最小的能量开销维持工作进程。本文全面回顾了在微控制器单元（MCU）中使用新兴NVM的情况，比较它们的关键属性以描述独特优势和潜在应用。此外，我们还讨论了NVM电路设计和NVM驱动的内存计算（CIM）架构的复杂细节。总之，将新兴NVM集成到MCU中为物联网和神经网络等下一代应用展示了广阔前景。
