---
_id: '67465'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: Computing-in-Memory using DRAM (CIMD) has demonstrated substantial energy
    and throughput gains for memory-bound workloads consisting of bulk-bitwise operations,
    by performing computation directly within DRAM subarrays. Realizing CIMD, however,
    requires a redesign of the memory controller and careful mapping of operands onto
    the memory arrays. Presently, accurate FPGA-based testbeds exist but they are
    costly and labor-intensive, while open-source simulators are largely trace-based
    and cannot execute full application runs. The only full-application CIMD simulator
    available, included with MIMDRAM [1], is built on an outdated version of gem5
    and its toolchains. We present gem5-CIMD, a full-system CIMD simulation framework
    built on the latest gem5 simulation framework. We extend the simulated instruction
    set from four bitwise operations to sixteen CIM instructions spanning arithmetic,
    relational, conditional, and utility operations across a range of data types and
    bitwidths (4 to 64 bits) . A complete memory-management stack – comprising multi-level
    huge-page support, a CIM-aware allocator, and a subarray-aware address-mapping
    scheme – ensures that CIM operands are co-located in the same DRAM subarray. In
    addition, gem5-CIMD is aware of the DRAM refresh interval and faithfully models
    and schedules the mandatory refresh operations when needed. We provide a CIM standard
    library intended as a compiler target and evaluate gem5-CIMD on multiple case
    studies including an end-to-end KNN workload. The simulator sources, including
    the evaluated workloads, are available at https://github.com/tud-ccc/gem5-CIMD.
author:
- first_name: Alexander
  full_name: Kusnezoff, Alexander
  last_name: Kusnezoff
- first_name: João Paulo Cardoso De
  full_name: Lima, João Paulo Cardoso De
  last_name: Lima
- first_name: Jeronimo
  full_name: Castrillon, Jeronimo
  last_name: Castrillon
- first_name: Asif Ali
  full_name: Khan, Asif Ali
  last_name: Khan
citation:
  ama: 'Kusnezoff A, Lima JPCD, Castrillon J, Khan AA. A gem5-based Simulation Framework
    for Computing-in-DRAM. In: <i>Proceedings of the IEEE Cross-Disciplinary Conference
    on Memory-Centric Computing (CCMCC)</i>. IEEE; 2026.'
  apa: Kusnezoff, A., Lima, J. P. C. D., Castrillon, J., &#38; Khan, A. A. (2026).
    A gem5-based Simulation Framework for Computing-in-DRAM. <i>Proceedings of the
    IEEE Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Memory-Centric Computing (CCMCC)</i>.
  bibtex: '@inproceedings{Kusnezoff_Lima_Castrillon_Khan_2026, title={A gem5-based
    Simulation Framework for Computing-in-DRAM}, booktitle={Proceedings of the IEEE
    Cross-disciplinary Conference on Memory-Centric Computing (CCMCC)}, publisher={IEEE},
    author={Kusnezoff, Alexander and Lima, João Paulo Cardoso De and Castrillon, Jeronimo
    and Khan, Asif Ali}, year={2026} }'
  chicago: Kusnezoff, Alexander, João Paulo Cardoso De Lima, Jeronimo Castrillon,
    and Asif Ali Khan. “A Gem5-Based Simulation Framework for Computing-in-DRAM.”
    In <i>Proceedings of the IEEE Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Memory-Centric
    Computing (CCMCC)</i>. IEEE, 2026.
  ieee: A. Kusnezoff, J. P. C. D. Lima, J. Castrillon, and A. A. Khan, “A gem5-based
    Simulation Framework for Computing-in-DRAM,” 2026.
  mla: Kusnezoff, Alexander, et al. “A Gem5-Based Simulation Framework for Computing-in-DRAM.”
    <i>Proceedings of the IEEE Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Memory-Centric Computing
    (CCMCC)</i>, IEEE, 2026.
  short: 'A. Kusnezoff, J.P.C.D. Lima, J. Castrillon, A.A. Khan, in: Proceedings of
    the IEEE Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Memory-Centric Computing (CCMCC), IEEE,
    2026.'
date_created: 2026-10-09T08:45:47Z
date_updated: 2026-10-21T09:11:45Z
publication: Proceedings of the IEEE Cross-disciplinary Conference on Memory-Centric
  Computing (CCMCC)
publisher: IEEE
status: public
title: A gem5-based Simulation Framework for Computing-in-DRAM
type: conference
user_id: '131313'
year: '2026'
...